Tunnels at Cu Chi, Vietnam

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Tunnels at Cu Chi, Vietnam

• Once a key tool for the Vietcong resistance
  fighters, now a tourist attraction.

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Please buckle your seatbelt and prepare for take
off.

• Next stop Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
• Once known as Saigon in the former South Vietnam.

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Getting there

• Ho Chi Minh City, once known as Saigon was the
  capital city of South Vietnam.

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A little background information

• Tunnels in Vietnam were built during the Japanese
  invasion of Indo China during WWII to hide
  weapons.
• Later they were used as bomb shelters and hiding
  places for anti-French forces.
• The building continued in Communist-controlled
  parts of South Vietnam as the Vietnam war with
  the U.S. raged on.
• Eventually the tunnels reached all the way to
  Cambodia.

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We are going to the Cu Chi Tunnels north west of
Ho Chi Minh City
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• Take a few minutes to study the Viet Cong Tunnel
  complex before we go in.

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Secret Entrances and Exits that Disappear when
the Americans are near.
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Life Underground
Actual height of tunnel

• Tunnels are enlarged to make room for tourists.
• Vietnamese traveled from small town to small town
  undetected through these tiny tunnels.

Lights were added for tourists.
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Wax figurines show tourists the mess hall and
kitchen.

• Communists can get food, medical care and water
  before they must fight or travel on.

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Medical Care Underground
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Shooting at the American enemy that cant see
you.
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Falling into booby traps.

• A bad fall on bamboo pegs covered with grass

• A boob a dumb or foolish person
• A trap- something that catches
• A booby trap - something that catches a dumb or
  foolish person

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More booby traps Americans might meet.
These fences are here to protect tourists.
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Tunnel Rats

• First known as tunnel runners and later tunnel
  rats, these soldiers took the dangerous job of
  going down a black tunnel alone to explore the
  tunnel. Remember there is no light.
• You are now a tunnel rat.
• Your equipment a small pistol, a knife, and
  entrenching tool, phone and telephone wire.

• Will you
• Fall into a booby trap?
• Run in to a poisonous snake pit?
• Fall into a poisonous spider web?
• Meet an enemy guard?
• Land on an enemy grenade?

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They went into the river and dropped out of
sight.

• See how the Vietcong confused the Americans here.

Under water Entryway
The Vietcong would enter the river, submerge and
disappear.
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Would you ever suspect that the tunnels were
beneath your feet?
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• Thanks for coming to Cu Chi.
• Enjoy your return trip.