Tunnels & Trails

Viet Cong used trails and tunnels to store supplies and food. �The Ho Chi Minh trail was a well known trail used to transport Viet Cong supplies and other needs. Other trails that were well known in the Vietnam war was Cu Chi �Trails.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

This trail was a slow moving pipeline system of mountain and jungle paths. �North Vietnam used Ho Chi Minh trail to move troops and supplies into the south. �This trail was made out of old existing trails connected together. �Starting south of Hanoi the main trail went into eastern Cambodia and stopped somewhere west of Da Lat in South Vietnam. �Other parts branched to east Vietnam. �U.S tried numerous times to shut down the trail �but�failed with attempts of mass bombing. �The Ho Chi Minh trail stood �up surprisingly well.

Cu Chi Trails

The strategically important tunnel network of Cu Chi District became legendary during the 1960s for its role in facilitating Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30 to 40 km from Saigon. At its height, the tunnel system stretched from the South Vietnamese capital to the Cambodian border; in the district of Cu Chi alone, there were over 200 km of tunnels. The network, parts of which were several stories deep, included innumerable trap doors, living areas, weapons factories, field hospitals and kitchens.

The tunnels were first constructed in the late 1940s by the Viet Minh: the improvised but effective response of a poorly equipped peasant army to a high-tech enemy. During the Vietnam War, the tunnels enabled isolated VC-controlled enclaves to communicate with each other, and allowed the VC to mount surprise attacks and then disappear without a trace. US frustration at their failure to destroy the tunnels resulted in widespread carpet bombing, turning the area into what has been described as 'the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare'.