Wednesday, March 27, 2013

#852 Cu Chi tunnels, Vietnam

The Vietnam War was one of the most brutal and violent in recent memory, with many atrocities occuring and such as strong clash of ideological beliefs in a culmination of Cold War hostilities. In Vietnam, I saw many remarkable things that represented this war, from bombed out valleys, the infamous China Beach near Da Nang, the former DMZ, and the headquarter cities of Saigon and Hanoi. 
However one of the most interesting features was the Cu Chi tunnels, a collection of the tunnels for tourists to see and get an idea of what covered vast amounts of territory and contributed enormously to the guerilla warfare -- in particular it was the base of the Viet cong during the Tet Offensive. Used for communication, supply, hospitals, storage, homes and means of movement, they were a very developed system. Despite being important to their resistance against the Americans, life in the tunnels was not particularly pleasant, as life underground with a plethora of tropical pests in abundance, and the other major killer: malaria.

The tunnels have been considerably widened and enlarged to allow for tourists, and the original trap door entrances camouflaged in the jungle floor were designed for the small Vietnamese bodies. Booby traps and other dangers were incorporated into the system including bambo spikes, cages, holes, etc. They really were an amazing piece of engineering and certainly an aid in overwhelming the Americas t

P.S. This is also one of the only posts on my blog where I am actually in the photos, which gives you a very accurate indication of how old the photos are!

4 comments:

  1. These pic is very nice. Can i use them to post in my website: http:http://www.deluxegrouptours.com

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    Replies
    1. Hi Ngyuyen, If you would like to put them on your website, please could you put credit to me and have a link back to this page.
      Thanks,

      Natalya

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    2. Normally I would prefer that they not be used without payment, but these are quite old -- from 1998, so probably not appropriate for a current tour website.

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  2. Please read above before posting a repeated message.

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