The Cu Chi tunnels are about 80km from Saigon, so we booked a bus tour to take us there. However before we reached the main attraction our tour diverted to a small set of workshops that made different types of traditional handmade Vietnamese crafts. What was particularly special about the workers in this factory though is that they were all disabled from the US Military use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. It was a complete tourist trap, but it did a small amount to prepare us for the awful things we would see and hear today.
The tunnels were a complex of networked chambers that the Viet Cong built to hide from and be able to continue the guerrilla tactics they employed against the US forces and their puppet South Vietnamese government. During our bus journey we were given a brief history of the conflict from our guide. His obvious pride of the resilience his countrymen showed was engaging, and I found myself warming to the Vietnamese point of view.
Once we arrived we were shown a quick film, and then our guide led us into the forest. The grounds were lightly covered in trees, and as you looked around you could see holes that were made by the many bombs that had been dropped in the area. Our guide set us a challenge. We were GIs and we had to find the entrance to the VC’s tunnel system – Go! We looked around us moving the dust and debris on the floor, until someone shouted that they thought they had it. We gathered round the area. What he found looked more like a ventilation hole to me! There was a little board no bigger than 20cm x 40cm. He had indeed found it! I couldn’t believe what I was looking at – it was so small, I had been looking for a trapdoor maybe four or five times bigger! Our guide called over a member of the museum staff who was dressed in typical green Viet Cong dress. He swiftly pulled the board up, lowered himself into the hole and placed the lid back on top. He got in and out with considerable ease. Rob had a go, he was very nearly too tall and had a few problems putting on the lid, but he managed it when many in the group couldn’t even fit in the hole! (Obviously pulling up a couple of floorboards and crawling around under the floor to lay a sky TV cable several months earlier had honed his tunnel rat skills!)
We then walked a little further and our guide talked about the various booby traps and tactics employed by the Viet Cong. Trip wires were a favourite method to send spiked metal objects swinging down from the trees, or to detonate a crude landmine. They would commonly use pits, covered by leaves or with revolving trap doors. These traps would often contain bamboo fashioned into spikes and smeared with urine and faeces to infect any wounds the unfortunate ‘trapee’ sustained. These methods were highly effective in slowing the enemy patrols down as they stopped to rescue their fallen comrades and keeping the wounded out of action for as long as possible.
Our guide explained that the Viet Cong were highly under equipped compared to the invading forces and often had to improvise with what they had around them. We were shown a mock up of a room where they would try and empty unexploded ordinance in order to try and retrieve and reuse their contents. Not the job I think I would have chosen!
After seeing some of the tactics above ground, we were told more about life underground. The Viet Cong’s first advantage was their size. The tunnels were made just barely big enough for people with an Asian stature. So if an entrance was discovered and a larger framed American tried to enter the tunnels he often got stuck, or was soon rendered so immobile he was quickly and easily killed. There was also a clever set of drainage points put into the tunnels which stopped the chambers being filled up with water in attempts to drown the occupants. Ventilation points and chimneys were made to look like termite hills, and after the enemy began using dogs to find these points in order to gas them, the Viet Cong would spray the aftershaves the US army used on the hills to confuse the dogs. Tunnel complexes were excavated on several levels so there were many options for the inhabitants to move around, fight, hide and seal off sections. There were areas to store food and water supplies, and the tunnel network was truly vast, allowing long term habitation totally underground when required. They were very ingenious indeed.
Next the bit we had all been waiting for, a crawl though a real tunnel to begin to get a feeling of what it must have been like. The tunnel was only 100m long, and had emergency escape points every 20m for those who became claustrophobic. 100m didn’t sound that daunting – until I entered the tunnel. This tunnel had actually been widened for tourists, but it was still so small that I had to crawl the entire way through. I felt much more anxious while doing this than I expected, movement and lighting was very limited, and what made my most uncomfortable was not really being able turn and see behind me, though there was always a sense of Rob on my heels! (I felt very grateful he didn’t at that moment decide to tickle me as there would have been very little I could have done about it!) We emerged after 100m (which felt more like five times that distance) and I was very relieved to have made it, and I was surprised to see that out of a group of about 25 of us only about a quarter of us had made it all the way through. It was then that I realised my sunglasses had dropped off my T-shirt at some point during my crawling! To my relief, Rob gallantly offered to crawl the gauntlet again, and after frightening another group of tourists by crawling the wrong way through the tunnels he emerged for a second time holding my unharmed sunglasses – result!
After the tunnels we stopped at a table and were offered the tea and tapioca that made up the Viet Cong wartime diet. It was bland, but not unpalatable. We were also shown mock ups of the many chambers that would have been connected by the system of tunnels. It was amazing to think that these troops lived entirely underground for months on end crawling through many Km’s of these small tunnels to achieve their aims. It is when you seen the amazing sacrifices and obvious resilience and resolution you see why they ended up demoralising and ultimately defeating the Americans.
The final part to this trip was a shooting gallery. If you wanted you could fire one of the weapons used by the US or Vietnamese during the war. Rob chose an AK 47, bought 10 bullets and we trotted down to the outside trench. A Vietnamese solider loaded the gun and instructed Rob how to fire it. We were given ear defenders, that, on closer inspection were just headphones with the cable cut off! So pushing this ‘protection’ as close to my ears as possible I watched Rob aim for one of oil drum targets. If you managed to hit a target you got a memento of the day. We don’t think he hit anything, the gun had definitely seen better days, and how accurately it was calibrated is anyone’s guess! The gun was very loud and looked to kick back relatively hard, however it was chained to the counter top, which probably stopped some of its reaction.
I had had a very educative and enjoyable morning, learning a lot about the Vietnamese side of the war, which I realised until this point had been lacking. All I knew about the Vietnam War was through watching the numerous Hollywood films! The guide had been very entertaining and informative and his message was simple – the North Vietnamese won because they were fighting for their country, lives and beliefs, which was more than could be said for US conscripts and soldiers on the payroll.
We headed back in the bus and were dropped off at the
War Remnants Museum, a slightly catchier title than it’s former and less P.C. version: “The human rights violations and war crimes atrocities American and French forces committed in Vietnam”!
We were greeted outside the museum by many captured American tanks, planes and helicopters. It was, however, what was inside that shocked me greatly. Downstairs there were many shocking and graphic pictures of the Vietnamese War. There was no sense of censor and many of the photos were difficult to look at once you comprehended the atrocities portrayed. In addition there was a large exhibition focused on the environmental and anthropological devastation caused by Agent Orange. This exhibition was continued upstairs with a series of photos of children who have been born deformed or mentally disabled as a result of their parents being exposed to the chemical. All of these exhibitions were undoubtedly designed to shock, and make people acutely aware of the damage these chemicals caused.
The most compelling exhibition was a series of photographs and information on many famous war photographers. This dated from the 40’s right through to early 90’s and although mainly focused on Vietnam it covered other wars too. The pictures were fascinating and very moving, and Rob and I actually ended up returning the next day to do the photos justice by giving them the time and consideration they warranted, considering how many journalists lost their lives to provide the images. A wonderful aspect to the exhibition was the range of emotions the photos covered, covering all elements and aspects of human interaction and war.
The final part of the museum was a small complex just outside the main building. This had frightening echoes of S21 and the Killing Fields of Cambodia. It was dedicated to showing how the South Vietnamese imprisoned those from the North, and the hideous conditions and violent torture they had to endure once captured.
I found the museum very informative of the Vietnamese view of their War with America, but it was always important to remember that it was very biased in places. It did fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge however. Walking around the museum was very sombre experience and at times very moving, it did a very good job of highlighting the brutality and very human reactions and emotions to war.
Manchester
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