The Guerilla Tunnels Cu Chi Tunnels from the Vietnam War
The Viet Cong guerrilla fighters' tunnel site is located about 45 km northwest of Saigon, about a hour and fifteen minute drive.
At this site, many tunnels were dug over a length of about 120 kilometers (!) and on several levels by the Viet Cong who fought the Americans in the Vietnam War.
♦ Recommended tours to the Cu Chi Tunnels departing from Saigon (for booking on Viator):
During a tour of the tunnel site, you can enter some of the tunnels and get an impression of the difficult life that was the lot of the Vietnamese who hid inside them.
Tunnel entrances:
The site has a war museum displaying weapons and bombs from the war:
Viet Cong soldiers dismantled unexploded American bombs to build landmines from the explosives inside the bombs.
The Vietnam War lasted 20 years (1955-1975). Officially, the war was between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, but North Vietnam was aided by communist Russia and China, and South Vietnam was aided mainly by the US, as well as Australia, South Korea, and Thailand.
The war ended with the withdrawal of the US and its allies from Vietnam, after which North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam in 1975 and established a communist regime throughout Vietnam.
In this war, between 1 and 3 million Vietnamese (soldiers and civilians), about 300 thousand Cambodians, tens of thousands from Laos, and about 60 thousand American soldiers and their allies were killed.
A bloody guerrilla war took place in the area of the Cu Chi Tunnels, and the Americans bombed the area with huge amounts of bombs.
The Viet Cong fighters lived for years inside the tunnels, where they cooked food for themselves underground (mainly tapioca) and hid the tunnels' ventilation shafts, slept in the burrows, and laid in wait for anyone who tried to attack them. In the vicinity of the burrows, they installed traps for enemy soldiers by digging disguised pits containing spears onto which the soldiers fell.
Traps for enemy soldiers:
To expose the Viet Cong soldiers, the Americans used to spray the forests with deadly chemicals that destroyed the trees but also severely poisoned the enemy soldiers, who suffered from severe genetic mutations and had deformed children born to them.
Short video about a tour of the tunnel site: