Mekong Delta and Cu Chi Tunnels: Field Lessons

My Tho wholesale flower market

While in Ho Chi Minh City, we took two day trips:  one south, to the Mekong Delta, the mouth of the world's 10th longest river, a river that starts in Tibet and flows southward along and through China, Burma/Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia before emptying out in a vast delta of islands and grasses.   We took a bus that left HCMC in the morning, and along with thousands and thousands of homeward-bound, Tet-celebrating scooters, inched our way down the Highway 1 that separates the "American Highway" and the "Japanese Highway" between HCMC and My Tho, on the edge of the delta.  First stop:  the flower market, where much of southern Vietnam's flowers are first sold to wholesalers, and then barged upstream to HCMC.   The volume and variety defies description, and we were particularly struck by the many bonsai trees, as well as the many grafted trees and shrubs, each containing a dazzling display of differently-colored blooms.

We then visited one of the local temples; unlike in Thailand, Vietnamese monks are monks "for life," and live in and care for the temples.  Most local adherents to the faith make their temple pilgrimages at night, after work, so we had the place to ourselves mostly.  It being the eve of Tet, the temple was filled with offerings of all sorts; note especially the box of cookies at the center base of the altar. 



Outside, the large Buddha smiles down on the town. 

The walls outside the temple are adorned with designs of flowers and fish; examined closely, it's apparent that the designs are fashioned from broken bits of ceramic -- teacups, pots, etc. -- making good use of the colors and shades to create ornate pictures.

Rice barge, headed to HCMC from Mekong Delta

After the temple visit, we visited one of the local villages, a village centered on the production of rice.  Vietnam is one of the top 3 exporters of rice, and the government limits the ability of rice farmers to convert their land to other uses; much of the Mekong Delta is given over to rice production, and from here, barges move the grain upstream to HCMC for final processing, packaging, and export.  While in the village, we were treated to a traditional "Tet" holiday lunch, with an amazing presentation of the large local freshwater fish -- which is flaked off, and, along with pineapple and cucumber, rolled into a micro-thin rice paper wrapping .

Mekong boat building

Paddling through the Mekon Delta swam

Taking a local ferry boat, we crossed one of the Mekong's meandering delta streams to visit one of the delta's many islands.   There, we saw some local boat builders carving the traditional delta boats out of local timber, and took a brief ride in one of these thin dugout canoes.  Our guide, whose southern Vietnamese parents made it through the war and the subsequent "re-education" campaigns of the victorious north Vietnamese (but whose uncle was sent, in his words, to a "brainwashing camp" for 10 years, before emigrating/escaping to Palo Alto, CA), remarked that these were the boats that many of the southern Vietnamese "boat people" used to escape the north Vietnamese victors. 

Historically, these dense jungle freshwater swamps saw a lot of action during the Vietnam War, including John Kerry's military service.  It's hard to imagine how threatening these narrow channels, overhung with bamboo and palm, must have felt to US sailors and soliders -- making their way among people and villages that had lived and paddled these waters for hundreds of years and dozens of generations.

Map of tunnel network; Cu Chi in red; so-called strategic hamlets in magenta

A few days later, we took a day trip to another famous site during the war years:  the area of Cu Chi, just north of HCMC, where the then-Viet Cong maintained a strong base of operations over the 1950-1973 period, and from which they were able to launch counter-offensive operations against both French (until the mid-50s), and the US/South Vietnamese government (until 1973) almost without interruption.  Known as the most heavily bombed, mined, and burned place in the history of man, this 125 square kilometer area owes its unique standing to the incredible and durable network of tunnels that were carved out by hand over a 20 year period.  At first, the local villagers -- traditionally sympathetic to the north -- dug basements into the hard, concrete-like clay banks of the Saigon River; over time, they connected their basements, hut to hut, with tunnels.  before long, the tunnels became a vital tactic in the Viet Cong's war strategy, and extended over two hundred kilometers into Saigon itself.  When the US built an airbase nearby, the VC dug tunnels under the base, and were able to surprise the Americans in their sleep.  When the US bombed the area, the tunnels were dug more deeply.  Eventually, the tunnel network included a vast array of eating, sleeping, war material-producing, cooking, and storage facilities, essentially immune to attack. 

A model of the tunnels, multi-level, connected to the river for water, and laced with living, sleeping, and work compartments.

Tunnel entry, hidden; 20 cm across.

Today, with evident pride, Vietnamese tour guides show off these tunnels, and make pointed reference to their success in using crude digging and camouflage techniques in protecting the local residents and serving as a critical base of operations during key phases of the war.  We were allowed/expected to crawl about 100m thru one of these tunnels -- again, as in the Mekong Delta, it is impossible to imagine the fear that must have filled the minds of the so-called "tunnel rats," specially-trained US fighters who were expected to go down into these tunnels to search out and destroy the underground enemy.  However slanted the perspective we've been given here by the Vietnamese, one fact stands out:  the Vietnam war -- indeed all wars -- are indeed hell.

The one unsettling note of the Cu Chi tunnel tour was the opportunity to fire M-1s. M-16s, and AK-47s at the midpoint.  On the one hand, hearing the sound of gunfire throughout the tour offered an audible reminder of the war's impact on the local residents; on the other hand, commercializing gunfire was a bit unseemly. 

We were glad to have visited both the Delta and the tunnels; both Jennifer and I were politically aware during the Vietnam War years -- I turned 18 in 1975, just after the draft ended, and actually ended up joining the U.S. Navy Reserve Corp as a means to pay for my college education, and spent two years "in uniform" being taught basic naval concepts and officer skills by men and women who had served in Vietnam.  I have never felt "close to war," however, and have lived my life in blessed ignorance of its horrors.  Seeing firsthand these two sites of so many TV-transmitted images brought home to me just how alien this land must have been to newly-arrived US officers and conscripts, and how much tactical and strategic advantage accrues to fighters that are either defending or attacking on native soil.  Perhaps we should ask any US political or military leader who proposes to enter the US into combat to spend a few weeks on the ground in or around the potential battlefield -- there's no substitute for seeing and experiencing the local conditions, and we may have had second thoughts about some of our post-WWII wars and conflicts if we had taken more time to understand and appreciate the idiosyncrasies of local fields of battle.  Seeing the swampy jungles of the Mekong River delta, and the jungle-enveloped tunnels of Cu Chi would surely have given me pause, that said of course with the unrepeatable benefit of hindsight.

Next -- Ha Noi, and its eastern sister, Haiphong Harbor and the infamous Gulf of Tonkin.