Cu Chi Tunnels and Vietnam War Museum

[Real time update: We are a bit behind on blogging but hoping to catch up - posts coming. Currently we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand after spending 10 days in Koh Samui. We have a few posts in the works still from Vietnam, then Koh Samui, and then Chiang Mai. We are currently heading south to Lampang for a week to serve with missionaries from church, which was actually one of the very first face to face convos we had about this trip, taking place before we even officially decided to do it - we are excited to be with them! From there we head to South Africa where we will serve a week with a campus from our church, then safari for a week and then spend another week serving before flying to Egypt, where a friend will meet us. Lots of upcoming changes.] 

Our first excursion to learn about the Vietnam War was a trip to the War Museum. This was a very interesting place because it presented the story from the North Vietnamese side. There was little to no history of the French occupation and war they started in 1954, other than to say that the U.S. funded a good portion of it (which is true in later years). The displays then went on to describe all the horrible war crimes committed by the Americans, with no mention of those committed by the Vietcong. Many locals had warned us ahead of time that it was a bit over-the-top in its one-sided presentation. It was interestingly awkward to walk around and feel a bit defensive, but war is awful no matter which side one views it from and we can only hope future generations will learn from the past. Thankfully we were all reading books about the war and so we were able to discuss some of the inaccuracies that we noticed the museum presented when compared to what we were reading.  Some of the displays were too graphic for younger eyes, so we had to split up at times and did not spend as much time here as we could have.  There were several exhibits on the impact of Agent Orange and these were challenging to take in.  There was also a fascinating exhibit, donated by the state of Kentucky, that celebrated the importance of photographers during the war.  This exhibit truly gave us an appreciate for the photographers who used their talents, risking their lives, to inform people half-a-world away of what the war actually looked like.  Maybe this exhibit was impactful because of the overload of propaganda in the rest of the museum, but the exhibit showed the reality of both sides as it looked in-depth at a profession which stared death and war in the eye.

CH-47 Chinook

Kids in front of planes used during the Vietnam War

In the play room, taking a break from a heavy day. The concerned employees felt compelled to
point out these were girl clothes. We laughed so hard that they left confused.

In 1954 the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu by Ho Chi Minh, who led North Vietnam, which was significantly more populated than South Vietnam.  Also at this time, the Geneva Conference divided North and South Vietnam with a 5-mile-wide "safe zone" called the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), and instructed all communists to move north of this border.  The North Vietnamese communists did not honor these instructions and it's estimated that 5,000-10,000 communists remained in South Vietnam undercover.

These events, along with China, Cuba and the Soviet Union's communist governments, had the US concerned about the 'domino theory' of communist expansion.  However, not wanting to send troops to back the South Vietnamese, President Eisenhower sent support in the forms of weapons, supplies, economic aid and advisors.  As time went on, it was apparent that South Vietnam needed more troops to help fight the battles and in 1965, President Johnson sent troops to Vietnam.

Meanwhile, North Vietnam was having trouble getting supplies to their undercover communists in South Vietnam, also known as guerrillas or Vietcong.  This is where the Ho Chi Minh Trail came into play as it passed through Laos and allowed supplies to flow into Southern Vietnam at multiple places along the western border.  This trail also allowed Ho Chi Minh and his soldiers to attack and set up base at Cu Chi, using it as a launch site.  The years of 1966-1968 were the worst years of fighting in the Vietnam War and Cu Chi was the location of the most horrific battles.

Yeah, we could man this thing!

The Cu Chi Tunnels are one of the unique things we really wanted to do while visiting Saigon.  They are about 45 minutes outside of the city in an area where the dirt is literally like concrete. This is one of the reasons the tunnels were built in that particular location.  We were so pleased with our previous tour that we opted to use the same company, which offered a half day tour to the tunnels. Unfortunately we could not get Ha again as he was already booked.  We were picked up and driven to the tunnel location, stopping along the way for some baguettes.

G covering up as he heads into a tunnel

Dad scrunched into the tunnel

Down they go - into the tunnels!

A more spacious section of the tunnel

Tunnels not built for even average sized Americans

Even in dirty tunnels, she's still good lookin' :)

One tunnel leads to a trap while the other is real

Boys reenacting a shootout as if they'd been coming out of a tunnel

Clipping armpit trap! 

The See Saw trap would swing and get the victim several times

Barbed arrow waiting for the enemy - often coated with feces
in order to cause infection

This baby would swing down form trees at troops

This door trap was hidden above doors

The tunnels are truly amazing to see and experience as the vast complexity leaves one's mind spinning. The Vietcong incredible use of guerrilla warfare included fake tunnels, trap doors, and booby trapped trails with various devices straight out of the movie Predator. There are 3 different levels of tunnels with over 250km of distance covered. The tunnels range from 25-40 inches wide, meaning Americans are almost certainly unable to fit through the smaller ones. Some tunnels started out larger and then slowly shrank so to trap Americans who might be pursuing. They were designed to drain to the nearby river should they get flooded and there was no map of this tunnel system ever made. The Vietcong cleverly dug beneath actual termite mounds, which provided natural ventilation with a perfect camouflage (termites are considered some of the worlds best architects as their mounds stay the same temperature day and night, year round, no matter what the outside weather may be because of how they regulate air flow). Additionally they diverted the smoke from the kitchen to a far away exit point, so as to not give away their location. Vietcong soldiers would literally live in these tunnels for 1-2 weeks before switching with the next round of soldiers.  After crawling through a small section of these tunnels (that mind you, had been made larger for us Americans), this is almost unbelievable to fathom as we felt incredible claustrophobic and the air was stifling, with the reality that there was little room to do anything but crawl on one's belly!  While these tunnels are cramped, one can't see them without realizing why it was so difficult to defeat the Vietcong on their own turf.

Kitchen area under ground

Diverted smoke escape hole from kitchen

The Vietcong recycled most of the American supplies to fight against them. They used bomb shells as shovels, our own flashlights and guns from killed veterans, built traps from our bomb parts, and dumped our shampoo and clothes in various places to throw off their scent from the American dogs. Anything the Americans left behind was used to fight against them. Even the dirt taken from the tunnels they dug, was simply used to fill back in the bomb craters so as to go unnoticed.

Shoes were built to wear backwards so that the tracks they made appeared to go the opposite direction

Kids standing in a bomb crater

Our tour guide, we learned, had a brother who tried to escape from Vietnam during the war. His first attempt left him captured and sent to prison for two years. He later organized 15 guys to man an escape boat, which eventually capsized, stranding them at sea for 6 hours before being picked up by a Dutch boat. They then spent 6 months in Hong Kong before being sent to the U.S.  Adding to his pro-American stance, we learned more than once, that our guide was very proud of the fact that his father fought alongside the Americans. His dad was shot in the leg at one point during the war.  At the end of the war he received a letter in the mail telling him he was being sent to "reeducation camp," where he stayed for two years. 

Our guide explained how in 1972, when the US withdrew troops from South Vietnam, they were sad they lost American support as they viewed Americans as their brothers.  South Vietnam was not strong enough to prevail, and North Vietnam took over.  Our guide explained that this closeness is why America took in so many Vietnamese refugees.  Apparently after the war, there was a "black list" of families, and if your name was on that list, you were not allowed many opportunities.  Bill Clinton was the first US President to visit Vietnam after the war.  During his visit the black list was eliminated and so he is highly regarded among the people.  So while Vietnam is considered an open-communist country, capitalism seems to be on the rise.

Of course, I'd like to shoot a machine gun!

"Peoples party of South Vietnam Revolution"

At the end of our tour we were served steamed
tapioca w/ salt sugar & chopped peanuts

A woman on site was making rice paper the old fashioned way

After having visited the one-sided War Museum, it was refreshing to have a tour guide that was pro-American and to hear his perspective of the events during the war.  However, as our youngest son commented, "It's easier and more confusing at the same time," as it showed us our own stereotype/ignorance of viewing the war and struggling to grasp that Vietnamese people themselves were divided and fighting their own countrymen. During all of our time in Vietnam, we did not run across a local who had a cross view of Americans, as they all seemed to understand the war well and feel their government's propaganda was a bit over done. At the same point, there was a sense of pride in their independence and growing economy. Granted, we were only in south Vietnam, not having time to make it to the north. This is something that we wish we could have done as the people, food, and country are beautiful.

To wrap up our Vietnam War field trip, we visited the Reunification Palace, where the head of the South Vietnamese state lived during the war.  On April 30, 1975 a Communist tank drove through the palace gates signaling the defeat of South Vietnam.  The palace stands empty and decorated in the '70's style of that day, as it has not been lived in since.  The architecture of this building was unique in its combination of traditional and modern '60's Asian influences.

A tank that stormed the Palace gates symbolizing South Vietnamese's defeat