To the other side of the war through Vietnam’s tunnels

When in Vietnam, one cannot forget the Vietnam War.  

“No. For us, it’s the American War,” points out Andrew Uy Nguyen, a tour guide when he is not being a toastmaster or a stand-up comedian. He even frowns upon movies like the Robin Williams-starrer Good Morning, Vietnam and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, for he says they peddle only one view. 

Local Vietnamese like Andrew are the legatees of a ravaging war whose relics thrive in the Southeast Asian country. An hour-and-a-half from Ho Chi Minh City, the economic capital also known as Saigon, lies the most engrossing war relic, the Cu Chi Tunnels. The sound of machine guns firing sets up the ambience for this elaborate network of subterranean battlefields. They say that the war did not stop here; it simply went underground. 

The war (1954-1975) was between communist North Vietnam and non-communist South Vietnam, which was supported by the US. The communists also had allies and soldiers fighting inside South Vietnam. An estimated three million Vietnamese were killed, two million injured, and 3,00,000 went missing. Over 58,000 US military personnel died and 3,00,000 were wounded.

Originally built by Vietnamese guerrillas during the French Indochina War in the late 1940s, the Cu Chi Tunnels were developed further into a sprawling 200-km underground network against the invading American forces. 

Specifically, the Ben Duoc tunnels at Cu Chi are swarming with stories of Vietnamese war ingenuity and their determination to survive in hostile jungle conditions against a powerful enemy. 

On demonstration here are booby traps laid by the Viet Cong (the Communist guerrillas). Most of them were designed to inflict maximum bodily injury on enemy soldiers. One trap was designed such that stepping on it would take the soldier down, while sharp iron rods would pierce into his armpits. 

How did the tunnel-dwelling Vietnamese find materials to lay the traps? They foraged for metal from American bombs and ordnance, it is said. 

A 1968 photograph from the Vietnam War at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

There’s a similar story about rubber sandals the guerrillas wore during tunnel warfare. The rubber came from the tires of abandoned enemy vehicles. Tourists are shown how a sandal could be worn backwards or forwards to hoodwink the enemy with misleading footprints. 

During the war, there were ‘tunnel rats’. No, not the rodents. They were US soldiers who volunteered to enter the dangerous tunnels to fight Viet Cong. These rats had to face the claustrophobia of the tunnels, besides the booby traps and venomous snakes. There are recorded stories of how the ‘tunnel rats’ who survived went on to live a traumatised life. 

While there is nothing that comes close to being a tunnel-dwelling guerrilla or a tunnel-infiltrating rat, tourists can experience a semblance of that life under the supervision of uniformed Vietnamese personnel. 

It is definitely dark, obviously claustrophobic, and requires crawling. For those few minutes, the tunnel will make you its prisoner, letting you move only slowly, until a faint light afar becomes bright enough to escape from the unseen shackles. 

However, these tunnels have been made tourist-friendly. “Vietnamese are small-framed, unlike Americans or Indians. So, the tunnels have been made a tad bigger,” tourists are told. 

Once outside the tunnel, the ambient firing continues. By the way, this is real firing taking place at a shooting range for tourists who get to handle weapons like M16, AK47, K63 and so on. 

The tunnel experience culminates in a serving of khoai mi (steamed cassava), which was the staple food for the tunnel inhabitants. 

Back in Ho Chi Minh City, the rest of the war story, particularly the famous ‘Fall of Saigon’, unfolds at the Independence Palace. From the outside, the Palace may look like one big, bland government building. Inside, however, lie the presidential privileges. It was, after all, the presidential suite of the erstwhile South Vietnam. The multi-storeyed palace has its own war bunker. 

A view of the 131-year-old Saigon Central Post Office.

The Cabinet room has been arranged the way it was on April 30, 1975. On that day, from inside the room, South Vietnam President Duong Van Minh saw communist tanks and infantry breaching the palace gates. South Vietnam surrendered, ending the devastating war. It was the Fall of Saigon. 

The cost of this war was huge, captured in jars of human foetuses deformed following exposure to dioxin known as Agent Orange used by the US military in Vietnam. The foetuses are on display at the War Remnants Museum. 

The War Remnants Museum is popular for its curation depicting other gut-wrenching stories like the My Lai Massacre.

The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, in Vietnam.

In fact, the museum’s highlight is Requiem, an exhibition of 204 photographs taken by 133 photographers from 11 nationalities. Many of them died or went missing during the war. This includes the story of legendary photojournalist Robert Capa’s death.

The museum also has on display numerous military equipment that were used during the war, including unexploded ordnance. 

It is natural for visitors to come out of the museum unsettled and seething after what they see. 

“I feel lucky and proud,” Andrew, the tour guide, says. “Lucky because I was born after the war. So, I didn’t have to pick up a gun. I feel proud because my forefathers went through a lot for me. It gives me confidence,” he says, tearing up. 

War tourism

War tourism is booming. The Indian Army is opening up some of the country’s most iconic battlefields under the Bharat Rannbhoomi Darshan programme. Indians looking for experiential war tourism will find Vietnam revealing. In 2024, over half a million Indians visited Vietnam. According to estimates, Indian visitors have increased 2.6 times in the last two years, helped by major cities now having direct flights to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi
and Da Nang.

(The author was in Vietnam at the invitation of VietJet Air.)