The Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. A destination known for its famous war with the Americans throughout the 1960’s until 1975. Learn all about what life was like in the jungle with an interesting visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels, located 70 km from downtown.
In the heart of the jungle, 200km of tunnels were well hidden from American soldiers. Originally built to protect the Vietnamese from French air strikes in the lat 1940’s to 1950’s, they were re-used during the 60’s as a staging ground for attacks on American troops.
The land was bombarded with napalm and agent orange in an attempt to wipe out the tunnels. Soldiers knew that they were there, but it was almost impossible to find. The jungle was wiped out and became a waste land, but you would never know it today. Trees and plants have grown back showing just how resilient this earth is.
Some guides are actual former soldiers that acted as translators for the Americans. They are filled with a wealth of information and if you really listen and forget that you are on a kitschy tour exploiting the horrors of war, you can learn a great deal about the tactics used by a people filled with strong will to defeat a more powerful enemy.
The Viet Cong were very clever indeed. They would run through the jungle and disappear by sneaking into cave entrances camouflaged by having termite hills placed on top. Cayenne pepper would be sprinkled around the entrance to disrupt the search dogs senses. The cave entrances were small too. So small that even if the Americans found them, the large G.I.’s would not fit through. A blast would make the opening larger but it would also alert the people underground that they had been found and they could slip away to another part of the cave. They even had escape routes leading to the river to be swept away to safety.
