Cu Chi Tunnels

On Monday we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is a labyrinth that was constructed for 20 years from the 1940s to the 60s and is a network of 150 miles of multilayered tunnels. Cu Chi was considered the gateway to Saigon, the seat of power for the South Vietnamese government. Cu Chi was also at the Southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and as such it was supplied with food and munitions from China coming down from the North. The tunnel system was the bane of the US Army as there seemed to be no way to completely destroy it or it's occupants.

The tunnels ranged in height from 15 inches to in some places to a max of 4 and a half feet in others. The tunnels had multiple layers, some over 30 feet deep. It was a tight fit in, the original hole here was about 80% of the current width. Covered with some debris the covers were virtually undetectable.

There were a number of booby traps that we set up in and around the tunnels. These were adapted from traps that the original occupants of Cu Chi used to catch food. I could not imagine dropping into one of these.

The Viet Cong, Vietnamese Communists, living in these tunnels took unexploded ordinances and created improvised explosive devices.

There was a proud display of this disabled American tank.

Today was the first time on the trip where we were part of a big tour group, 45 people on a bus sweating together. All of our other guided visits were with the guide and our family. That really helped get to know the guides and allowed more customization as we were the sole ones paying the bill. Big tour groups are not terrible, but they are not our preference. We had this sweet interior on the bus, tassels are coming back.

As part of the tour we were able to squat walk and crawl through about 500 feet of tunnel. This tunnel section was about 4.5 feet high and about 2 feet wide. While this sounds like a lot room, you change your mind rapidly when you get down there and try to work your way through it. By the way, this tunnel had been widened to accommodate the western girth. The Family Huth were four of the six people from the 45 on our bus tour that made it all 500 feet and did not chicken out to the surface along the way.

Terrific Tunneler Tara.

Tunnel Rat Riley.

The end of our tour was a 20 minute video of a film that was probably produced 30 years ago in the days when anti-American sentiment still ran high among those who were of that persuasion. It was all about how simple people became warriors and fought off the enemy Americans. The video profiled at least three 'American Killer Hero's' as the film put it, a farmer, a female teacher and a young girl.

We did not have many conversations about the war with America, but when the topic did come up, most wanted to move forward and not look back. The Vietnamese were under Chinese rule on and off for 1500 years, then the French Colonialists as well as conflicts with the Japanese and Cambodia, etc. They have a strong desire for sovereignty, as does any nation. I suppose those Cu Chi fighters were doing what many Americans would do if we had known millennia of foreign occupation and outside rule.

We have heard some stories from our guides about the brutality of the Viet Cong against citizens of their own country who were not communist, and we know the record of at least 100 million murdered at the hand of communism under Mao, Lenin and Stalin. Christianity has been abused by rulers who were not acting in accordance with the teaching of Jesus and they are rebuked by His Word. Those un-Christian actions done in the name of Christ pale when compared with atheistic communism which has no transcendent restraint.

The South did not stand a chance against the North supplied by China. While there was legitimate grounds for a South North defensive war, I am confident one cannot arrive at a Biblical case for the involving American money and blood. I am in no way dismissing the incredible sacrifice made by Americans who gave their blood, their lives and were forever changed in the jungles of Vietnam. I do charge our government with its pattern of endless wars that cannot be Biblically justified.

War is always the result of sin.