Located 45 miles northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, the Cu Chi Tunnels are an elaborate underground network made up of 155 miles of tunnels and chambers stretching to the Cambodian border. They were dug primarily with bare hands and small hand tools over a 25-year period, beginning in 1948 during the war against the French. The Viet Minh (revolutionaries fighting for Vietnam’s independence from the French) used the tunnels to communicate between villages and evade the French soldiers.
During the American/Vietnam War, the tunnels provided refuge and a defensive advantage to the Viet Cong and were instrumental in helping the Vietnamese troops win against the Americans.
Small and very dark, the underground compound was a complicated system of trenches, bunkers, and bomb shelters. The tunnels served as living quarters, communication and supply routes, and housed hospitals, food, and weapons caches. Soldiers and their families cooked, ate, slept, worked, and attended school in the tunnels as the war raged above.
Today the tunnels give us a fascinating glimpse of the hardship of life in the complex and the Vietnamese resilience during combat.
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