Vietnam - Cu Chi Tunnels

Vietnam is a Communist country with a population of over 86 million people. The capital is Hanoi in the north but the largest city is Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) in the south. The reason for this lies in war and communist domination.

Ho Chi Minh dates back to the 1600’s as a Cambodian Khmer fishing village. As it is located strategically on the Mekong Delta it is an important trading hub. In 1859, the French, who were just passing and thought they would drop in, occupied Saigon to take control of the Mekong. This introduced western capitalist culture and some excellent architectural influences such as the 1876 Notre Dame Church and the French Colonial Post Office.

Notre Dame

Two Indochina wars fought in recent times then defined modern Vietnam.

The first Indochina war was fought in the 1950’s between the French government and Ho Chi Minh communist army. This first war was the direct successor leading to the second Indochina war; the Vietnamese people, concerned at declining numbers of snails and frogs, felt that the colonial powers were trying to control their country. The French government relinquished their control of Vietnam Cambodia and Laos in 1954.

Vietnam had been split into two, with a communist government in the north under Ho Chi Minh and a democratic government in the south under Ngo Dinh Diem. Ho launched a guerilla campaign in South Vietnam, led by Viet Cong units, with the goal of uniting the country under communist rule. The United States, seeking to stop the spread of communism, trained the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and provided military advisors to help combat the guerillas.

American, Australian and New Zealand military advisors were sent to the region in the late 50’s and early 60’s to assist the capitalist South Vietnamese government in their war against the communist north. It was realised by 1964 that the South Vietnamese government needed help in winning this battle so combat troops entered the region. The conflict reached its peak in 1969 where some 900,000 US solders were involved in the conflict.

In both wars, an important part of North Vietnamese military strategy was the building of the Cu Chi tunnel system, a 200 kilometre underground defensive system with many stratums, nooks and crannies. Thousands of people in the Vietnamese province of Cu Chi lived in this elaborate system of underground tunnels. Originally built in the time of the French war, the tunnels were enlarged during the American presence. When the Americans began bombing the villages of Cu Chi, the survivors went underground where they remained for the duration of the war.

There's still a few left in the tunnels !

The secret tunnels, which joined village to village and passed beneath American bases, were not only fortifications for Viet Cong guerrillas, but were also the centre of community life. Hidden beneath the destroyed villages, in these tunnels, were schools and public spaces, hospitals where children were born and surgery was performed on casualties of war. There were even theatres where performers entertained with song and dance and traditional stories.

“……. For the Viet Cong, life in the tunnels was life threatening. Air, food and water were scarce and the tunnels were infested with ants, poisonous centipedes, scorpions, spiders and vermin. Most of the time, guerrillas would spend the day in the tunnels working or resting and come out only at night to scavenge for supplies, tend their crops or engage the enemy in battle. Sickness was rampant, especially malaria, which was the second largest cause of death next to battle wounds. The tunnels still played a major role in North Vietnam winning the war.”

I visited the Cu Chi tunnel system by travelling up the Saigon River in a high-speed patrol boat. The driver, a former South Vietnamese soldier, emulated the zigzag patterns and defensive maneuvering a patrol boat would have followed during the war. We slowed down at all the military hardware and checkpoints along the riverbanks.

We arrived at Cu Chi and despite the colourful tourism flavour that pervades the site, the spectre of war is visible and haunting.  

The whole area was booby trapped with pits, spikes and other devices that would have delivered immeasurable pain and suffering but not death. These devices are still operational and on display to demonstrate their effectiveness. An atrocity by any civilised cultures’ measure.

Rolling trap usually covered in bamboo and grass with live scorpions in the base

The Vietnamese tour guide spoke too warmly of the Vietcong (communist north Vietnamese) strategy to maim, not kill, soldiers. The logic was that it would take at least two more soldiers to take the injured soldier back to medical aid thereby taking three soldiers out of action. 

In the middle of this fetid, steamy, sweaty, booby-trapped jungle I was offered live ammunition to shoot any number of high-powered weapons! Under other circumstances I might have seized the “Nick Darcy” moment as many might expect me to. In this atmosphere I felt that to pick up a weapon or shoot one more bullet was abhorrently disrespectful to those who did so for their cause, their country and their mates.   

Vietnam is a beautiful country with warm and welcoming people and a rich history, albeit with a few skeletons in the closet...... but don't most countries have the odd skeleton?  

This was Nathan reporting live from Vietnammmmmmm......