(Another PSEO benefit -- a summer college course trip to Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam when I was 17. So this was nearly 20 years ago, I suspect things have changed much in Viet Nam since then.)
Now, mind you, I went into a tunnel that had been widened for tourists. And I still thought I was going to crawl out of my skin in claustrophobia.
I was in Cu Chi (Viet Nam), but I think they go all over. They were used during the war for, well, everything. Troop movement, supplies, hospitals, you name it.
Because the U.S. had near-complete air superiority, and declared they wouldn't invade the North, the communist government developed extensive underground facilities over many years. These were also used south of the DMZ, and in both cases were a way of compensating for the U.S. air advantage via low-tech labor – much of it forced labor of the civilian population under communist control in the South. In the North, of course, all the labor already belonged to the government.
I've been in those tunnels.
ReplyDelete(Another PSEO benefit -- a summer college course trip to Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam when I was 17. So this was nearly 20 years ago, I suspect things have changed much in Viet Nam since then.)
Now, mind you, I went into a tunnel that had been widened for tourists. And I still thought I was going to crawl out of my skin in claustrophobia.
What are they?
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of them.
Amazing.
I was in Cu Chi (Viet Nam), but I think they go all over. They were used during the war for, well, everything. Troop movement, supplies, hospitals, you name it.
ReplyDeleteBecause the U.S. had near-complete air superiority, and declared they wouldn't invade the North, the communist government developed extensive underground facilities over many years. These were also used south of the DMZ, and in both cases were a way of compensating for the U.S. air advantage via low-tech labor – much of it forced labor of the civilian population under communist control in the South. In the North, of course, all the labor already belonged to the government.
ReplyDeletethanks, Ben --- !
ReplyDelete(And, yes, I do wish I'd learned ANYTHING about history ....)