Day 8-- I'm a tunnel rat

Today we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels (a hot but very cool experience). We got on a bus and went about an hour and a half north to Cu Chi. We arrived and sat through a short video presentation after Professor Berman spoke about the war and a little history of the area and after Snowball (Pete) spoke about the tunnels as structures and how they were made/worked. An interesting thing about the video we watched was that it was in the perspective of the Vietnamese. From what I could understand from the video, the Vietnamese considered the Americans "Devils" and thought their infiltration was unnecessary. I think understanding both sides is important in understanding the history of the entire war and in understanding America's role in Vietnam. Another interesting thing that I learned watching the video was that there was a large number of female soldiers in the Vietnamese army. Many girls/women lost their families early on in the war, and to honor their families they would put on a uniform and fight. I consider these women some of the bravest in the world (along with all the soldiers that fought in the war). 

The video ended and we were able to go into the tunnels and walk around in them. (By "walk" I mean crawl, on hands and knees sometimes). We went through three tunnels overall but the first one gave me a funny feeling. Being down in the tunnels didn't seem real to me but I know it was very real for the people running through them over 40 years ago. I felt a small rush of excitement crawling through the tunnels which I assume would have probably been fear and adrenaline 40 years ago. Overall, crawling through the tunnels was a cool way to see history instead of just reading about it. Another amazing thing about the tunnels was the sheer engineering aspect of them. There were multiple rooms, different levels of tunnels, breathing holes that were camouflaged above ground, etc. The tunnels were only just big enough for the Vietnamese people to crawl through, which stopped a lot of Americans from invading them (American peopel are much larger than Vietnamese people). The Americans that were able to crawl through the tunnels were called "tunnel rats". Call me a tunnel rat. 

After the tunnels we made a few more stops. We went to a temple (don't know the name of it:() that was built to commemorate the Vietnamese soldiers that had lost their lives in the war. Next we went to the cemetery where the people who had died in the war were buried. Both places were very beautiful but also gave me chills. Some of the art on the temple walls displayed scenes from the war, women and children running from men with guns. Not a nice picture really. 

Snowball speaks about tunnels

Our tour guide

Walking through the forest (the paths we were on were not there 40 years ago)

Inside the Temple commemorating the soldiers who have died during the war

Cemetery of the Vietnamese soldiers