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Impact Zone:
We arrived at the town of Chu Chi and turned North East. This is the site of the large base camp of the 25th Infantry Division, "Tropic Lightening". I came here a number of times. Heading north, we passed several signs pointing to tunnels and drove along the Song Saigon (river) to find myself right across the river from Phu Loi, my old hangout. Here the paddies had ended and we came into new growth jungle. It had been triple canopy mature jungle when I arrived. Suddenly, I found myself in a primary impact zone for our artillery at Phu Loi and the area carpeted by B-52 and other bombers during my stay. The province had been declared a "Free Fire Zone" when I was here, and it was plowed for miles and miles by high explosives and de-foliated with agent orange. Under foot, right where I stood was the illusive target.
Heip and John are shown at left at tunnel entrance and John and I in the right photo are in a section enlarged enlarged for visitors..
This part of the province is geologically a hard white clay that digs well and holds tunnels well. Beneath this ground were 180 miles of tunnels, 2 and 3 levels deep. The tunnel guide, who spoke no English, started scraping around in the leaves with his feet, apparently looking for our benefit for something. "There is one of many tunnel entrances here", said Heip. "Can you find it?" We couldn't, but the tunnel guide did, and brushing away a few leaves, pulled open a trap door, through which a skinny man could enter.
The guide took us to another place where they had built a access to the tunnels big enough for me and we went down into small low caves leading into a hospital, a command bunker, dorms, a kitchen; all connected by tiny tunnels of 10 to 20 meters long, in which bats hang and chirp in irritation as we disturb their rest. In the dining area, tea, cassava, and rice cake was served. Later, walking through the new growth, we saw, as I remembered, large bomb craters every few yards, usually now about 20 ft across and almost as deep. In one is still the butt end of a 500 pound bomb ? still there ? still hot? How could anyone have lived through such? Many didn't.
We visited one more tunnel. It leads to a briefing room with maps still in place. On the maps are marked the assault plan for the Tet attack on Saigon. At least we were told it was planned here. If so, it was on one of the most contested pieces of real estate anywhere and only 2 1/2 miles from where I slept, sometimes peacefully. Near that site, there is a war memorial [shown above] built in the form of a Chinese Temple and dedicated to the Viet Cong Guerrillas who had fallen in this province. These were the villagers here, not the NVA Regulars. The temple seems to be about 200 feet wide and half as deep. In tiers along the back and both sides, much like the VietNam Veterans' Memorial in D.C., are the names of those killed here, 67,000 names. It is a stunning site, but only a small portion of the dead.
Henry Kamm, in his book, Dragon Ascending reports evidence of over 2 million civilians killed in the war in both north and south, over 200,000 South VietNamese soldiers also died. The number of NVA soldiers killed is unreported, but they died by the 10s of thousands at a time. The American policy of attrition was as far off the mark as it could be. These people were willing to pay any price for however long it took to out wait us, and they did.
Click to visit: TahNinh City and an Old VietCong
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