Day 2 Visiting the Viet Cong Cu Chi Tunnels

Up early for a full day.  We visited part of the 125 mile complex of tunnels that the Viet Cong dug before and during the Vietnam War.  For many of you, this is just history, for the rest of us, we were watching the Vietnam War debacle (the Vietnamese call is the American War) play out nightly on the evening news.

Instrumental in the North Vietnamese winning the war was this tunnel complex outside of Saigon.  During the Tet Offensive in 1968 the peasant guerillas attacked Saigon and history tells us that this was the beginning of the end of the war.  The American's knew the threat coming from the Cu Chi area and toward the end of the war 2000,000 bombs were dropped in this area per month.

The introduction to the Cu Chi Tunnels was North Vietnamese propaganda film
from the 1960's.  A perspective we had never seen before.  To the left was a map
of the tunnels and to the right is a cross-section.  In some areas, there were three
levels of tunnels descending over 30 feet.

Demonstrating the size of the typical access to the tunnels.

A huge part of the war to kill Americans were the booby traps placed throughout
this area, all were deadly and very effective.

For tourists, they widened the 'demo tunnels from two
feet wide by three feet tall to two and a half feet wide
by four feet tall, still a very tight fit.

Below is the iconic image many of you may remember, it was taken on the last day of the war as the US was trying to evacuate as many South Vietnamese as possible.  This is the top of the US Consulate at the time.  Below this photo is what it looks like today.  A huge commercial building stands behind this building.