Briefing on the facts of history and the estimated locations of the tunnels - very eye opening
On 2nd June 2009, I had some time off and had a never - to - be - forgotten experience. We went to Cu Chi,home of the largest complex of tunnels in Vietnam during the Vietnam war from 1959 - 1975.Located about 2 hours or 100 km north of Ho Chi Minh, I had an 'awakening' of sorts when the video presented the Vietnamese side of the 16 year war which saw 50,000 American troops killed or Missing in Action and over 3 Million Vietnamese killed. The greatest injustice is how one sided Hollywood had presented the War with the Vietnamese who just wanted self-rule albeit through Communist ideals made to look like villians and thieves. Many American troops committed atrocities to the simple villagers such as raping young children and women and killing indiscriminately either for revenge or suspected that the villagers were Vietcong in disguise or hiding Vietcong in certain locations. The truth of the matter was that the villagers were villagers in the day and Vietcong or sympathisers of the Vietcong at night. It was a case of fighting a 2 faced enemy / friend.
Our tour guide Mr. Tam briefing us at the entrance of the tunnel (!) See guide in green standing at the back.
The first tunnel was within 2 feet from me and I could not believe that it was even there ! Our experienced guide,Mr. Tam gave us a briefing on how long they had to dig the tunnels (it started during the short conflict with the French in the 1950s and carried on during the American invlovement) plus how they endured all kinds of hardship to get rid of the earth dug out as well as how many rooms and levels each tunnel was created for. It was indeed fascinating to see the demonstration by the guide who was standing by the tree.
Lift up the cover and down he goes !
The guide, dressed in green fatigues lifted up the wooden cover full of leaves and there was the smallest of entrances, probably 2 feet wide by 1 and a half feet depth. It could barely fit him in ! Once inside, he would get on all fours and start crawling into the tunnel which was pitch black and guided only by his flashlight, make his way along the tunnel. He would stay in the tunnel moving on all fours to get to the rooms below which housed a kitchen, small clinic and sleeping dormitories.
Up pops the hidden entrance cover and in he goes !
Living in a tunnel is some people's version of Hell but with no choice except this or be killed or maimed, the hardy Vietnamese people took to the underground like Rats to the Holes. The Americans had their volunteer soldiers who opted to go and seek out and kill these Vietcong and they were nicknamed the 'Tunnel Rats'. Many were borderline mad people or very immune to human suffering as their missions were either kill or be killed with either option very possible. Very few prisoners were taken alive on these missions.
Tunnel hidden from plain sight ; tunnel complexes in Cu Chi run into the kilometres in length !
Multi-layer Tunnel System with Living Quarters,Kitchen,even an underground Hospital !
People with phobias for dark and enclosed spaces would be terrified to be in here, but for many thousands of these Tunnel Heroes, these provided the many families and even entire communities who lived vritually underground for days and even weeks on end. The Americans may have conquered the land with their consistent carpet bombing, chemical weapons and " "Scorched Earth" where they bombed the land with all kinds of chemicals most notably Agent Orange and caused alot of untold suffering and creating hundreds of thousands or even millions of maimed civilians.
I have changed my mind about the history presented on the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese people are the true heroes and liberated themselves over a deadly Imperialist superpower who used their military superiority and money to overwhelm their enemies. Ultimately the Americans lost mainly due to their weaker fighting spirit and no will to win. Vietnamese resilience,mental strength and cohesiveness won the war. Not military might. The one biggest enemy the Americans couldn't win over was their own minds.
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