A place that’s physically invisible, the Cu Chi tunnels have
sure carved themselves a celebrated niche in the history of guerilla warfare.
Its celebrated and unseen geography straddles – all of it underground –
something which the Americans eventually found as much to their embarrassment
as to their detriment. They were dug, before the American War, in the late
1940s, as a peasant-army response to a more mobile and ruthless French
occupation. The plan was simple: take the resistance briefly to the enemy and
then, literally, vanish.
Firstly, the French then the Americans were baffled as to where they melted to,
presuming, that it was somewhere under cover of the night in the Mekong delta. But the answer lay in the sprawling city
under their feet – miles and miles of tunnels. In the gap between French
occupation and the arrival of the Americans the tunnels fell largely into
disrepair, but the area’s thick natural earth kept them intact and maintained
by nature. In turn it became not just a place of hasty retreat or of refuge,
but, in the words of one military historian, "an underground land of
steel, home to the depth of hatred and the incommutability of the people.
"It became, against the Americans and under their noses, a resistance base
and the headquarters of the southern Vietnam Liberation Forces. The linked
threat from the Viet Cong - the armed forces of the National Liberation Front
of South Vietnam - against the southern city forced the unwitting Americans to
select Cu Chi as the best site for a massive supply base – smack on top of the
then 25-year old tunnel network. Even sporadic and American’s grudgingly had to
later admit, daring attacks on the new base, failed for months to indicate
where the attackers were coming from – and, importantly, where they were retreating
to. It was only when captives and defectors talked that it became slightly more
clear. But still the entries, exits, and even the sheer scale of the tunnels
weren’t even guessed at. Chemicals, smoke-outs, razing by fire, and bulldozing
of whole areas, pinpointed only a few of the well-hidden tunnels and their
entrances. The emergence of the Tunnel Rats, a detachment of southern
Vietnamese working with Americans small enough to fit in the tunnels, could
only guess at the sheer scale of Cu Chi. By the time peace had come, little of
the complex, and its infrastructure of schools, dormitories, hospitals, and
miles of tunnels, had been uncovered. Now, in peace, only some of it is
uncovered – as a much-visited part of the southern tourist trail. Many of the tunnels
are expanded replicas, to avoid any claustrophobia they would induce in
tourists. The wells that provided the vital drinking water are still active,
producing clear and clean water to the three-tiered system of tunnels that
sustained life. A detailed map is almost impossible, for security reasons if
nothing else: an innate sense of direction guided the tunnellers and those who
lived in them.
Many routes linked to local rivers, including the Saigon River,
their top soil firm enough to take construction and the movement of heavy
machinery by American tanks, the middle tier from mortar attacks, and the
lower, 8-10m down was impregnable. A series of hidden, and sometimes
booby-trapped, doors connected the routes, down through a system of narrow,
often unlit and invented tunnels. At one point American troops brought in a
well-trained squad of 3000 sniffer dogs, but the German Shepherds were too
bulky to navigate the courses. One legend has it that the dogs were deterred by
Vietnamese using American soap to throw them off their scent, but more usually
pepper and chilly spray was laid at entrances, often hidden in mounds disguised
as molehills, to throw them off. But the Americans were never passive about the
tunnels, despite being unaware of their sheer complexity. Large-scale raiding
operations used tanks, artillery and air raids, water was pumped through known
tunnels, and engineers laid toxic gas. But one American commander’s report at
the time said: "It’s impossible to destroy the tunnels because they are too
deep and extremely tortuous."
Today the halls that showed propagandas films, housed educational meetings and
schooled Vietnamese in warfare are largely intact. So too are the kitchens
where visitors can dine on steamed manioc, pressed rice with sesame and salt, a
popular meal during the war, as they are assailed with true stories of how life
went on as near-normal, much of the time. Ancestors were worshipped there,
teaching was well-timetabled, poultry was raised – and even couples trusted,
fell in love, were wed, and honeymooned there. But visitors have it easier:
those re-constructed tunnels give the flavour of the tunnels but not the
claustrophobia and the sacrifice of the estimated 18,000 who served their
silent and unseen war there with only around one-third surviving, the rest
casualties of American assaults, snakes, rats and insects.
Now the unseen and undeclared No Man’s Land is undergoing a revival, saluted as
a Relic of National History and Culture with its Halls of Tradition displaying
pictures and exhibits. The nearby Ben Duoc-Cu Chi War Memorial, where the
reproduced tunnels have been built, stands as an-above ground salute to a
hidden war.
Cao Dai Great Temple built between 1933 and 1955. The Great Temple
is 140m long and 40m wide. It has 4 towers each with a different name: Tam Dai,
Hiep Thien Dai, Cuu Trung Dai, and Bat Quai Dai. The interior of the temple
consists of a colonnaded hall and a sanctuary. The 2 rows of columns are
decorated with dragons and are coated in white, red, and blue paint. The domed
ceiling is divided into 9 parts similar to a night sky full of stars and
symbolizing heaven. Under the dome is a giant star-speckled blue globe on which
is painted the Divine Eye, the official symbol of Caodaism. Cao Dai followers
worship Jesus Christ, Confucius, Taoism, and Buddha.
Everyday, there are 4 times of services, 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., and midnight, on
our tour visiting Cu Chi tunnels and Tay Ninh province, we can witness the
solemn ceremony of the unique religion - Caodaism at Caodai Holly See at its
noon tide prayer service with followers dressed in red, blue, yellow and white
robes.
7:29 PM
