'V' For Vietnam

One of the tunnel holes of Chu Chi Tunnels

From afar, the never ending rattling of automatic weapons can be heard. However, as the Americans get deeper into the wood, peculiarly not a single Vietnamese can be seen. No sound of children’s cry of fright. No sign of movement. Where are they? It seems like a dead land, but the traces of human presence are very obvious. Chopped wood bundled neatly and stored in a newly built hut. Fresh growth of fruit plants and vegetables cover some parts of the area. A flaming bonfire confirms the existence of those people. Where had they gone hiding?

The Saigon’s Notre Dame Basilica

That was a common scene of the Chu Chi Tunnels during wartime in 1968. Chu Chi Tunnels being one of the most famous and extraordinary battlegrounds, is located about 30km Northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam in the Chu Chi rural district. The Chu Chi Tunnels consists more than 200km underground maze where thousands of fighters and villagers could hide. The rural district is noted as the base where the Vietnameses mounted their operation of the Tet Offensive in 1968. By using the tunnel network that stretched from Ho Chi Minh City to the Cambodian border, the Viet Congs managed to control the rural area. The main axis system has many branches that connect to underground hideouts, shelters and entrances to other tunnels. Vietnameses are born to be naturally skinny and petite, an advantage for them to fit through very small and untraceable entrances and passages (0.5 meter to 1 meter wide). One has to bend or drag when walks along the passages. 

Before the invasion of the Americans, Chu Chi had been a peaceful land of many gardens. One halcyon morning in 1968, Americans ruthlessly dropped strings of bombs on the peaceful land, killing thousands of Vietnameses. The blood-thirsty American squads mercilessly fired at the women and children. The Americans wanted to turn Chu Chi into a dead land, but Cu Chi would never die. Instead, the war had turned the Vietnameses into brilliant fighters, who they called themselves as Viet Congs. Slowly and silently they built secret tunnels as hideouts. While being attacked by the Americans several times, the digging continued until they finally completed the underground village. The tunnels, not only had they become the shelter for thousands of villagers but it had also become the safest place for the Viet Cong guerillas to strategize their fights and ambushes against the invaders. During ‘calm’ times, when the invaders temporarily stopped attacking, the guerillas and villagers would crawl out of the tunnels and would go about their daily bussinesses as usual. The men would chop woods, catch fish and built traps while the women would wash clothes by the stream, pluck some fruits and plant vegetables. Some Viet Congs would be stationed at every corner of the land to detect the advance of the Americans and send signals to the village occupants if it happened. Upon hearing the signals, the guerrillas and villagers would leave everything and scurry hurriedly into the jungle and into the tunnels through the ‘main entrance’. The last person would have to close the entrance door from outside and cover it with dry leaves and tree branches and ensure that there were no traces of footprints that might lead to their hideouts. Then he would enter the tunnel through another entrance (backdoor) which was much smaller and difficult to squeeze into. While the American troops searched around above ground, the Vietnameses went about their business underneath. 

Vietnamese health drinks

The war ended in 1975 with victory on the guerillas' side. Since then the Vietnameses moved on to live like normal people. They no longer lived under the ground. When I paid a visit to Ho Chi Minh City in June 2005, I took the chance to visit the battleground and I felt like the war had just ended yesterday.