The Tunnels of Cu Chi

This was a long day; I was exhausted by the end and didn't have a chance to blog, so here this is...
It started as an early day. I got up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and we headed to the Cu Chi District, about an hour and a half from HCMC. Driving through the rural countryside was quite an experience. Coming from Lancaster County, I have some expectations of a farming community and what a farm looks like. This was incredibly different! I knew that crops would be different, this was mostly rice, but I didn't expect such small fields and everything being so flat. Also, there was a greater level of poverty outside of the city, for which I felt sorry. We arrived at a tourist site for the Cu Chi Tunnels in Ben Douc and started the tour with an introduction from Dr. Berman and my roommate, Pete. The tunnel system was used by the Viet Cong as a place for people to live, travel, and facilitate guerrilla activity during the Vietnam War (it was used before this war, but this brought it to a new height). The tunnels started as underground bomb shelters with added tunnels between them. They continued to grow and the Communists eventually ordered their expansion for tactical purposes. A political booklet from the war states the primary role of the tunnels as such: "they are for the strengthening of combat vitality of our villages. They also provide more safety for our political and armed units, and for the masses as well. But their sheltering purpose is only significant when they serve our soldiers in combat activities. As mere shelters, their great advantages are wasted... There must be combat posts and equipment inside the underground tunnels for providing continuous support to the troops - even if the enemy occupies the village" (from The Tunnels of Cu Chi by Tom Mangold).  Dr. Berman also wanted us, specifically the engineers, to view the tunnels from an engineering perspective. The over 250 km of tunnels (at their max) were completely dug by hand and small tools. There were wells, kitchens, small health clinics, and tactical meeting rooms through the networks. The communication passages were between 0.8 and 1.2 meters wide and between 0.8 and 1.8 meters tall. For tactical advantage, entrances were well hidden trapdoors on the service, covered in natural foliage. This was truly an amazing feat of engineering and planning, not to mention the stamina and determination to live in the complex. Getting back to our day, we began our actual tour of the tunnels with a Vietnamese propaganda video from 1968; this was very difficult to watch. The video glorified the guerrilla warriors of Cu Chi and spoke of Americans as the "white devil." There was footage of American troops being shot upon relentlessly and tanks being exploded by the Viet Cong. Not only was this bad enough, I couldn't help but to the of similar American films with the roles reversed. It's a chilling thought. We then took a walk to some of the tunnel entrances. Our tour guide reached the first and miraculously pulled up on a door from the middle of the path. He squeezed down in and disappeared without a trace, until he popped up at another spot about 40 feet away. We continued on the first one tourist could enter (it was slightly enlarged to accommodate larger bodied guests). We walked down a few steps and then squatted into a tunnel between two rooms, snug fit and there was also a bat that flew by. We came back up and were able to try a few more, one of which was around 30 meters and required and almost vertical dropping maneuver. Due to my size, I actually found the tunnels to be pretty navigable, though the heat was even worse inside the tunnels than it was above ground. This also made me realize that I would have been a tunnel rat during the war, a solider that climbed into the tunnels, without any knowledge, to scout and search for the Viet Cong; this thought made the experience very real and connected me to the experience. At a quick stop between tunnels, we grabbed some water to cool off and some students bought scarves to wet and cool off, I was later surprised to find out these were part of the Viet Cong uniform. Once we finished the tour, we had lunch by the water and watched the thick water hyacinth fill up the river and flow down stream. We went to a memorial temple for all of the lives lost in Cu Chi; this included a central statue of Ho Chi Minh, and then a the names of all the people lost around the inside. It was interesting to compare the American memorial in DC with all of the names listed there as well. We wrapped up our day trip with a soldiers' memorial graveyard. With the straight rows of headstones and incense pots, I compered this the Arlington National Cemetery in the US. We got on the bus and made it back to the hotel. I went with a group of guys to dinner, but we all filed out quickly to make it to our suit fitting back at the hotel. Around 20 suits were almost completed and this gave the tailor the fit specifics he needs to finish. We cleaned up a bit and went downtown for a bit with some of the UEF students. After a full day, I was exhausted when we came back and fell asleep as soon as my bed hit the pillow. It was a very intense day, and I'm glad we had this retrospective experience while in Vietnam.