Cu Chi

The Cu Chi tunnels consist of a network of more than 250km (150 miles) of underground man-made tunnels that were dug out by the Vietnamese in the 1940's originally to fight against the French who had occupied Vietnam, as well as Cambodia and Laos (collectively known as Indochina), from the late 1850's.

During WW2, the French got slightly distracted when their country got invaded by the Germans.  They eventually gave up control of Indochina to the invading Japanese.  There was a lot of invading in those days by non-Americans.   The communist Viet Minh party was formed in 1941 as a group interested in independence from the French.  Unsurprisingly, they became very popular since the French had occupied the region for so long.  They were also probably tired of eating baguettes.  In the power vacuum that was formed by the surrender of the Japanese in Aug 1945 (and the French in Vietnam who were interned by the Japanese), the Viet Minh under Ho Chi Minh took over and Vietnam finally had its independence.  For a few months.

The French who didn't seem to figure out from the German occupation that it sucks to be invaded, wanted Vietnam back.  Which is admittedly sort of understandable if you've seen the beaches in Vietnam.  And half of the country's border is made up of gorgeous coastline.  Geographically, it's the bee's knees.  Displaying an unfortunate lack of judgment, the Allied victors (US, UK, and the Soviet Union) agreed that the country belonged to the French, so the Chinese forces moved into the North while the British troops moved into South Vietnam to help hold things until the French could re-equip themselves to occupy the area again.  The British then re-armed the already present interned French as well as the defeated Japanese who hadn't yet returned home, to help out since there weren't enough British troops.  War and politics make for strange bedfellows.  The Viet Minh party won an election held in January 1946, but by March, the French landed in Hanoi and by November, had ousted the Viet Minh.  The peeved Viet Minh then began guerilla warfare against the French, thus kicking off the First Indochina War.

The subsequent years got messy, not just in terms of body count but also from the number of other countries that got involved all of whom were convinced that "winning" Vietnam was significant in their battle against evil commies or capitalist pigs.  The Vietnamese party in power happened to be communist, but the only thing the Vietnamese people really wanted was to have their country back and for everyone else to leave.  The US watched, but temporarily remained on the sidelines.  In 1954, the Vietnamese had the last say and the French finally threw in the towel and left, leaving behind only their baguette recipes and architectural influences.  And thus, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam gained their independence.

Then things got *really* messy over the couple of decades as the Americans, who also failed to learn anything from history, took the reins from the French and became more and more involved, convinced by the Korean War that communism was spreading and that defeating the communists in Vietnam was really crucial in stemming "the Red Tide".  Bizarre political alliances, corrupt leadership, rigged elections, secret bombings, media propaganda, executions, assassination attempts, and a whole host of other melodramatic events defined this era in SE Asia.  In Vietnam it all culminated in The Vietnam War (aptly known as "The American War" by the Vietnamese).

...but I digress.  The tunnels in short, were built to fight the French and ended up also being used to fight against the Americans and other SEATO allied forces (Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines).   The ones in Cu Chi are actually only a portion of the entire network of tunnels which underlie much of the country.  The Vietnamese lived within the tunnels - hiding in them during the day, and coming out at night to attack enemy forces.   The tunnels are an intricate network of tunnels with underground wells, air vents, military bunkers, medical clinics, war planning rooms, etc.  The use of the tunnels were very effective especially in the beginning when Vietnam forces would seem to appear and disappear into thin air.  The tunnels were eventually discovered and the American forces first tried to  bomb them, but the extent of the tunnels were severely underestimated and the locations for most of it were unknown.  Many trees died during this bombing campaign.  They eventually tried to send people into the tunnels, but that was ineffective as well because they were heavily booby trapped.  The tunnels are considered by some historians to be critical to the Viet Cong in allowing them to survive long enough to outlast the American troops, eventually leading to their withdrawal in April 1975.

So now you know most of what I read about in the last couple of days.  Photos in the next post...