They're not your family tunnels, but a very complex network of tunnels which served as hospitals, living quarters, communication and offer routes, as well as storage areas to the weapons and food of the Viet Cong guerrillas. They were constructed without the need for any sophisticated machines or tools but only crude tools and human resilience. The Viet Cong guerrillas began building them in their proof against in france they from the late 1940s. Its original purpose was for communication between villages without getting detected from the French army. In 1960, however, Vietnam's National Liberation Front began excavating and extending the tunnels. The tunnel system was very strategic adding to the victory from the North Vietnamese Army up against the Americans.

Many of these secret tunnels were built underneath American bases. Its importance had not been only limited by military purposes but also took over as hub with the Vietnamese community life because Americans burned and destroyed villages. Everything proceeded normally for that Vietnamese during these tunnels where lovers met, couples get wed, children went to school, and performances were held.



All was not normal, obviously. The Vietnamese was required to face troubles of life in cramped quarters where ants, scorpions, vermin, and poisonous centipedes thrive. In addition to that, they have to ration everything because food, water, and even air were scarce. More often than not, they simply got out from the tunnels in the evening to scavenge anything that can be helpful for the neighborhood whether were supplies or food. If the Americans bombed and infiltrate villages, that they had to remain over these claustrophobic quarters for the purpose appeared like endless days. Those living conditions made sickness, especially malaria, rampant. The truth is, it is now the next major cause of death one of many Vietnamese during that time. In addition to that, the majority of the tunnel inhabitants had serious installments of intestinal parasites.

Even though the Cu Chi tunnels had been a haven for your Vietnamese, it had been a method to obtain frustration to the Americans. That they tried various ways of detection and infiltration which are all a failure. The American troops conducted major operations burning villages, bulldozing jungles, and destroying rice paddies. They deployed planes which sprayed chemicals to defoliate areas burning it afterwards. Through all these offensive attacks, the Vietnamese guerrillas, along with the remaining villages, remained safe and secured in their tunnels. Regardless of this, only 6,000 Vietnamese from the original 16,000 tunnel inhabitants could survive following the war.

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