Exploring MASSIVE Vietnamese Tunnels | Cities Of The Underworld (S2, E2) | Full Episode

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DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Today, Vietnam is a booming country of 84 million people spread across an awesome landscape from its bustling cities like Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi to its thick jungle and rugged mountains. It hardly resembles the bombed out bloodsoaked battleground left over from the Vietnam War. This is the part of the war you don't really get to see. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): But there's still a secret world from that deadly era hidden underground. From 75 mile long handcar tunnel systems-- I don't know how they fought a war down here, much less won it. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): And an underground Viet Cong nerve center filled with deadly traps. Man, it's tight. [grunt] I don't know how you wouldn't get lost down here. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): To mountain caverns that would transform into covert military headquarters. This is insane. It's huge. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): And a top secret subterranean bunker that was a lifeline to the Pentagon. This is really where the last stand was made, in these hallways. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Vietnam was the perfect venue for an underground war. And that's exactly where it was fought and won. The war you know from TV and movies barely scratches the surface. We're peeling back the layers of time on Cities of the Underworld, Vietnam. [music playing] Deep beneath the cities, villages, and jungles of Vietnam are the secret battlegrounds of the Vietnam War. The tunnels, trenches, caves, and bunkers used to fight the war have been swallowed by the jungle abandoned or just forgotten. But they're still there. You just have to know where to look. I'm Don Wildman. I'm in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a booming metropolis that moves at a blistering pace. Today, it's the powerhouse behind one of the world's fastest growing economies. But just 32 years ago, this was war torn Saigon, a city entrenched in a bloody Civil War, caught up in an epic struggle between world superpowers. Vietnam was a poor country then, a nation divided in two. So how did an army of rice farmers and fishermen resist America's overwhelming military might? To get the answers, you have to dig deep. You have to go underground. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The Vietnamese had a long legacy of fighting guerrilla wars, from the invasion of the Qin dynasty in the second century BC to the French occupation in the early 20th century. But after the French occupation ended, Vietnam was left divided in two at the 17th parallel, the communist North and the democratic South. Throughout the early '60s, tension between the North and South had reached a fever pitch. Finally, in 1965, an all-out war began. The South Vietnamese and its US allies had to face an enemy that was ready and waiting, the NVA or North Vietnamese Army. But their biggest challenge was fighting the guerrilla army in the south, the VC or Viet Cong. In 1965, American troops outnumbered the Viet Cong nearly 2 to 1. They focused most of their military power on a 40-square mile area called the Iron Triangle. It was a hotbed of Viet Cong activity. And the Cu Chi tunnel system was the nerve center of it all. When young American troops were first dropped into the jungles of Vietnam, they had to trudge through this. It was some of the densest jungle in the world. They were constantly on the lookout for booby traps and Viet Cong fighters who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Now, they knew the enemy was operating in tunnels beneath the ground. But what they didn't know was there was a massive military complex hidden right below their feet. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The Cu Chi tunnel system stretched for an amazing 75 miles coming to within 10 miles of Saigon. Much of the system was destroyed by bombs or bulldozed. But under Thanh Phu village, a large section of these tunnels remains intact. And local guide [inaudible] knows it inside and out. Can you find the entrance, Don? Find the entrance? This looks like an entrance right here. - Can you open it? - Uh-huh. Mm. That bomb explosion, that the booby trap there. So there's a bobby trap-- GUIDE: Yeah. I got blown up in a bomb. GUIDE: Yes. So this is a decoy. So they wanted us to find this. They wanted us to open this up. They wanted us to die. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): An elite group of allied soldiers called Tunnel Rats volunteered to infiltrate the Viet Cong's massive underground complex. It was the only way to find and kill the enemy. But it was also the deadliest job in the war. For them, these tunnels were hell. Tunnel Rats eager to find an entrance often caught in deadly traps like this one. The dummy entrance door was wired to a hand grenade that exploded when the door was lifted. Another simple trick was to attach a tripwire to a box of scorpions, or simply dig a pit inside the tunnel, and fill it with sharpened bamboo sticks. The fall usually wasn't fatal. So the stakes were dipped in feces, practically guaranteeing a horrible death by infection. You could find it for yourself. Just small area. Oh, yeah. So it's a really small hole. That's only suit for the Vietnamese because it's so slim. - Oh. OK. So they were small men. GUIDE: Yeah. Small soldier, they could fit in this, whereas Americans, such as myself, would not fit so well. So this was, in itself, a kind of protection. So it's one big network down there. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): 40 years ago, this would have been the last place you'd want to go, down into a tiny, twisting hand-carved tunnel that might stretch on for miles. Here we go. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Or suddenly dead end in a booby trap or a bunker full of enemy soldiers. [interposing voices] It's really dark, and it's really tight. Man, this is much tighter than I thought it was going to be. This way, huh? Yeah. Now, is this typical of the size? GUIDE: In a war it feels smaller. Oh, man, look at this. GUIDE: [inaudible] than this one. DON WILDMAN: What is this? This is a scorpion, huh? GUIDE: Yeah. Phew! It's really tight. You know, it's one thing if you were a Cong and you knew this place. But if you came down, try to get them, man, you'd be walking into a lion's den. Phew! DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Even though their death rates were nearly 100% in the beginning, soldiers from the US and Australia volunteered to be Tunnel Rats. They crawled in, armed with just a flashlight, a 38, and a knife, and would infiltrate the tunnels to gather intelligence or destroy the enemy. The fighting was simple, but brutal, hand-to-hand close quarters combat in dark tunnels. Waiting around every corner was an ambush, a tripwire, or explosive, not to mention scorpions or snakes. There was no way to truly prepare for that kind of fighting. But when the US was able to capture VC tunnels, they turn them into training courses for the Tunnel Rats. They set up elaborate obstacle courses, including simulated booby traps, false walls, and tripwires. Incredibly strong and incredibly long. Look, you can see the bats. About every six feet or so, there's another bat. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The Tunnel Rats were crawling through a maze that had been growing bit by bit for almost 20 years. The Cu Chi tunnels began as a few interconnected bunkers dug during the war against the French in 1948. Over the years, they expanded out in a series of looping, crisscrossing passages with multiple routes between each section in case bombing or a cave in destroy a portion of any one tunnel. Basic defenses were built in. The main passages zigzag to deflect explosions. And every 100 meters, there were shallow pits full of water that absorbed fumes from tear gas grenades and smoke bombs. In some areas, the tunnels were four levels deep, 30 feet beneath the surface. So B-52 craters all over the place. I mean and that's only like I don't know, 15 feet over our heads or so. These tunnels were so well-constructed to actually absorb that impact. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): It was an enormous construction project. Workers tended the rice fields during the day, and at night, dug the tunnels beneath them. The average worker moved 35 cubic feet a day, about six wheelbarrow loads. But fresh earth would show up in aerial photographs. So the dirt had to be hidden in bomb craters. And rice paddies are covered with leaves. It just takes a minute to crawl 35 feet. But to dig that same distance would take an entire day. It was tough, slow work. And the tunnels were kept as small as possible, 3.9 feet wide, 3 to 6 feet high. The size was crucial to prevent cave ins when 50 ton tanks rumbled overhead. Every tunnel and every chamber kept their ceiling span small, smaller than the surface area of the tank treads. This way, tanks were always at least partially on solid ground. The weight was evenly distributed. And the tunnels were saved. And that was crucial to the war effort of the Viet Cong. There were three major VC headquarters hidden in Cu Chi, scores of bomb making workshops, and thousands of guerrilla soldiers. All of this-- oh, this goes into a room down here. What is this? That's the fighting bunker. DON WILDMAN: I can see daylight around here. Yeah. I see the jungle. And this is bat [bleeps]. So I'm shooting out of here if I was fighting. They can see the enemy. And it can go on a plane for shooting. OK. So they can report on movement and so forth. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Viet Cong soldiers were careful to conceal the firing bunkers, oftentimes, constructing fake anthills out of the dirt. But they were still at risk of being spotted by the enemy. After all, if you could see the enemy, that meant he could see you. I'd seen enough to know that life in the Cu Chi tunnels during war could be hell. And I'd only seen a fraction of this place. DON WILDMAN: In the war, there was monsoons and rain. This would have been mud and things would eliminate snakes, et cetera. Oh, my God. Look at that. It looks like it bites. I don't know if this is going to let me go by without biting me. I don't know how they fought a war down here, much less won it. And I know whether there's an exit, but I got to get out of here. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): But no matter how well-built these tunnels were, much of the fighting still happened above ground. And of the 16,000 Viet Cong troops that operated in the Cu Chi tunnels, only 6,000 survived the war. This was the true history of the Vietnam War, the forgotten remnants and buried tactics of a guerrilla army that turned the tide against the largest military force on the planet The Vietnam conflict was the first televised war in. History but the bloody images beamed into American homes didn't tell the whole story. The jungles and rice paddies we saw on TV actually concealed another battlefront, a subterranean one. During the Vietnam War, most people lived in small towns like this. But even ordinary villages could become the target of intense American bombing, and many simply vanished. But one extraordinary village just north of the DMZ found a way to survive by going underground. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Just north of the DMZ or demilitarized zone, the three mile buffer zone between North and South Vietnam is another tunnel system in the village of Vinh Moc. Unlike the Cu Chi tunnels in the south, this was not meant as a military base, but as a civilian bunker, a whole town carved out by the peasants themselves beneath the earth. In Vinh Moc, where the famous tunnels are. There's a local guy here who's going to show me the tunnels. Hey. - Hey. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): My local guide, [inaudible],, who grew up in the area tells me that by the end of the war, American bombing had wiped out the entire village. These are unexploded bombs. Boy, this really puts it in perspective, doesn't it? Jeez, it's so-- how big is this bomb? How many bombs fell on this area? Do they know? About a million? DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): A 2,000-pounder dropped by a B-52 left behind this enormous crater. And it's just one of many that litter the village. But why did the seemingly innocent fishing village come under such heavy attack? It all has to do with its strategic position on the South China Sea. 17 miles off the coast of Vinh Moc was a top secret North Vietnamese Garrison on Con Co Island. The Island Garrison was the key to defending the North Vietnamese coastline. They fired on warplanes and Naval forces who entered their waters. The villagers of Vinh Moc were the only ones from the mainland who could supply the weapons and ammo out to the island. When the US found out that Vinh Moc was smuggling arms to the Garrison. They pummeled the area with millions of 2000 pound bombs. Many civilians fled to the north. But 60 families stayed to support the Garrison and its mission, and move their village underground. Of the 13 entrances, seven were hidden along this seaside cliff. Look. Oh, cool. Look at that. Ah. So this is one of the seven that come off the beach. Yeah. Yeah. This is the one of the other seven [inaudible] entrances up the beach, and this is the entrance number one. OK. Pretty well camouflaged in the [inaudible].. Yeah. It's totally, totally camouflaged. Yeah. You couldn't even see this if you were looking in. This is how they would have been bringing in the supplies and the soldiers right into the village, right into the tunnel. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): While dodging bombs and continuing to run supplies to the NVA on Con Co Island, ordinary citizens managed to construct a massive tunnel system by hand. It took 18 months of constant hard labor. But when they were done, they had created a one of a kind subterranean community. Fresh water, I guess. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The tunnels are just a mile long. But there are three levels to this system. The lowest, over 80 feet beneath the surface. The depth was essential since a direct hit from a B-52 could create a crater 15 feet deep. When the bombs fell, everyone descended to the third level, where even the strongest US bombs couldn't reach. So this is how it was. This was how they dug it straight out of the Earth. Yeah, you can feel the moist clay. I mean, and also how soft it is. Look at the material. So you can almost dig it with your own fingers. It's just mud, but dense, really dense. So it's not coming down. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): In fact, the dense clay was the key to keeping these tunnels from collapsing, with 80 feet of Earth pressing down on them. It was soft enough to dig. But when exposed to the air, hardened and made the perfect structural support. But that doesn't mean it was an easy project. Using picks, shovels, and hoes, they carved out 6,000 cubic feet of rock and earth, enough to fill 653 standard commercial dump trucks and hold it away in bamboo baskets under cover of darkness. In addition to creating two main corridors, the locals carved out kitchens, sleeping quarters, a hospital, everything they once had above ground. They were even 17 babies born down here. DON WILDMAN: Look down here. Look at this. The way they've got a gutter system for drainage just to send the water back out. You know, they were dealing with not only the bombs, but also monsoons and everything else that a normal village would have. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): By the time it was finished, there were 400 people living in the Vinh Moc tunnels, crammed together in impossibly tight spaces. And they stayed down here for six long years. GUIDE: We are still in the second level. So we've come down two levels to this place. How far below the ground are we here? Oh, this is the second level, 15 meters underground about-- 45 feet or so. 45 feet. But it goes down deeper. GUIDE: Yeah. 23 meters deep to the third level. DON WILDMAN: Can you imagine growing up down here? And there were kids. There were 17 kids who were born in these tunnels. And so for the first decade of their life, they're living in these rooms, watching their movies, and singing their songs in this room, and going down the hallway to their cave where the family lived. It's a hell of a childhood. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The villagers who lived in these rooms just 40 years ago weren't just hiding in the dark, waiting out the war. Fishermen made daring nighttime runs to the island military base, dodging US patrol choppers. Like the American Tunnel Rats, these men volunteered for a mission they knew would likely kill them. And they were known as the Suicide Squad. In fact, many of them died at sea. But if they made it back to Vinh Moc, they would be safe in these tunnels. With supplies constantly moving in and out, these dark slippery passages were a beehive of activity. So they worked out a system to prevent traffic jams. DON WILDMAN: I mean, what were these small spaces used for? Either passing way. [inaudible] passing way. So it was a traffic flow, you know? That. Yeah, because there'd be so many people going back and forth. - Yes, yes. You'd have to have a place to-- [interposing voices] Pass on by. [chuckles] Looking practical. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Because Vinh Moc was in the heart of enemy territory, a land invasion by US forces was way too risky. So instead, they dropped millions of tons of bombs from above. [breathes heavily] So how could they tell between the enemy and the local? So they communicated with each other-- Yeah. Through their own-- I'm OK. This is me. Don't-- don't-- don't hurt me. I don't know how you wouldn't get lost down here. If you didn't know where you were going. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): I had come in one entrance, gone through multiple levels of tunnels and bunkers, and come back out again. It was a confusing maze. And that was the point. Outsiders could never find their way through here. DON WILDMAN: [exhales] Fresh air. [breathes heavily] So we entered 80 feet at the bottom of [inaudible]. - Yeah. Of the beach. Mm-hmm. DON WILDMAN: The tunnel wound its way all underneath the mountain place-- GUIDE: Yes. DON WILDMAN: And delivers us up here right back in the village. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): For six years, in spite of bombing overcrowding and vermin, the village of Vinh Moc found a way to hang on, not one life was lost. When the war ended in 1975, the rebuilding began, directly on top of the tunnels that kept this town alive. The Viet Cong were fighting on their home turf. They knew the terrain. They constructed a complex systems of tunnels underground for field ops and bomb shelters. They took advantage of the thick jungle canopy to conceal their supply routes north to south. And in the mountains, they use a naturally formed cave system as a top secret underground military base. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The Phong Nha area is located in the Ke Bang Mountains. It's a two-hour drive from Hue City over steep mountains of thick jungle. I took a riverboat along the Son River to meet up with a former South Vietnamese soldier named Sonny. DON WILDMAN: This is the Son River in the Phong Nha area of North Vietnam. We're above the DMZ, above the 17th parallel. This is where the war was being fought on their home turf. I mean, they could fight from jungles, they could fight from tunnels, and they could fight from caves. And that's what this area is famous for. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Sonny was a Southern Army officer who had fought alongside Americans and knew this country and its secrets like the back of his hand. Concealed beneath one of these peaks is an impenetrable top secret fortress. And rain or no rain, the only way to get there was by boat. So what do we do? We take a boat up there? - Yeah. We got to take a boat there. Sorry, it rained so heavy-- DON WILDMAN: That's all right. - We had to go anyway, right? The monsoon never hurt anybody. OK. All right. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The Son River bisects the country. But most of it is actually underground. And these few exposed miles were key to the war effort. Because here, it flows alongside the most critical supply route in the country, the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Without the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a hidden network of footpaths, roads, and tunnels, the NVA could never have moved men and supplies into southern held territory without detection. But there was one flaw. NVA troop caravans heading south had to leave the safety of the hidden trail and cross the Son River, making it a favorite target for the US and its allies, drawing down as much as 18,000 pounds of munitions a day. So this is a real hotbed of the war. Right, right. This region in the country right here. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The slow moving ferries used to shuttle men and cargo across the river were easy targets for US aircraft. So the NVA got smart. The ferries crossed by night. And by day, they docked out of sight in the safest harbor in the country, deep in the Phong Nha caves. This underground lair was more than a boat dock. Like a medieval castle, it was a town, a fortress, and a dungeon. So this is the natural opening of the cave. That's exactly. Not created to look this way. No created at all. It's a massive. And all of a sudden, totally quiet. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): There are over 300 caves riddling these mountains. But Phong Nha is the biggest and most impressive system. 14 chambers, some over 100 feet high connected by a 12 mile underground river, the longest in the world. During the war, this cave acted like a natural military base. There was a harbor, a massive meeting room, a hospital, and a prison. And the subterranean section of the Son River served as a highway between it all. The tunnels of Cu Chi and Vinh Moc were hand-carved. But mother nature gets all the credit for this place. What is this? DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The people in this area knew these caves well. This is insane. It's huge. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): And knew how to use them to their best advantage during wartime. DON WILDMAN: What is this up here? DON WILDMAN: Mm-hmm. To mirror-- So this was a hugely strategic area that we're in, SONNY: That's right. This cave system. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The US knew these caves were here and knew they were sheltering NVA boatsmen and supplies. But there was nothing they could do about it. The Ke Bang Mountains were an impenetrable bomb shelter. How big do you think this mountain is over our head here? SONNY: Most people have said it's 200 meters size. DON WILDMAN: 200 meters, so it's 600 feet of rock. SONNY: That's right, That's right. DON WILDMAN: And then this is about 100 feet high here. So then-- SONNY: Yeah, in total. DON WILDMAN: And total protection of about 700 feet of [inaudible]. Very good place to hide. [chuckles] A super bunker, if you will. Right. A super bunker, if you want to say that. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Added security came from the fact that this river is the only way in or out of the cave system. There was no chance of a sneak attack from the rear, since large sections of the river beyond these caves are impassable. When you consider that they knew the land, that the Americans couldn't possibly know, they knew where the jungles could hide them and where the tunnels were. But they also knew where these caves were. That nobody could possibly figure out. I mean, they're not on the map. It's just a mountain on the map. So you're flying over with a bomber and you can't see this, but it's massive. And you could hide in here and no one would ever find you. Or if they tried, they're not getting past the entrance. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): 40 years ago, this would have been full of soldiers, resting after a long march down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, preparing to go into battle. In the south, high ranking allied officers built bases with air conditioned offices and swimming pools. But the North Vietnamese generals met here. Like with all their natural resources, they squeezed every ounce of usefulness out of it. DON WILDMAN: So we're under a whole mountain here and they're bombing outside that entranceway. It's the daytime, so all the ferries, all the boats are inside. Boats are inside. Safe. The prisoners are up here. The wounded are being taken care of. Commanding officers are down here, making decisions. This is a whole military base, a whole operation underground, right? That's right. Yeah. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Thousands of NVA soldiers could have passed through here. And because hundreds of pilots were shot down in this area during the war, it's possible that POWs passed through here as well. Americans at home watch the war on TV. But the battlefields they saw barely scratched the surface. During the Vietnam War, just about every inch of the country was a military target, from big cities to small villages, even remote mountain caves. But of all the bombed and burned out places, there was nothing quite as deadly as the borderline, the DMZ. This bridge spans the Ben Hai River at the 17th parallel. It marks the center point of what was the DMZ or demilitarized zone. This whole region was designed as a peaceful buffer between north and south. But for nearly a decade, it was hell on Earth. It was nearly bombed into oblivion. It was riddled with millions of landmines, countless bunkers, and miles of trenches. It was essentially a no man's land. And to this day, evidence of its dark past is still buried. Underground DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Despite its name, the DMZ became one of the most militarized areas in the world. And it was pounded with some of the heaviest bombing of the entire 14 year war. There are hundreds of bunkers, trenches , and trails that still surround the region. But since many of them have been filled in, covered up, or swallowed by the jungle, they're nearly impossible to find. I met up again with Sonny in Hue City. [inaudible] DON WILDMAN: And you got some bikes for us, huh? Yeah. You have to put this on, please. OK. Thank you. Hue is a strategic city just south of the DMZ. Some of the war's fiercest battles were fought to control it. Again, let's go. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Route one bisects the DMZ and is the only road that leads all the way from Hanoi to Saigon. And Hue City was dead in the middle between the two. When the North Vietnamese attacked, they came right down this , highway, right? That's right. Right. Right. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Hundreds of underground bunkers protected all routes leading into the city. If the north wanted to infiltrate the south, they needed to take this highway. And to do that, they had to fight one bunker at a time. Cruising along the highway it's hard to see the old bunkers. But from Sonny's years of military experience during the war, he's able to spot one. Sonny, this is the bunker right here, yeah? Right. These bunkers are all defending route one. All the way route one, the railway, the river, oh the waterway. - Sure. There's a whole 'nother river but-- SONNY: [inaudible] You can really see the-- I mean, this would have been a canopy concealment, wouldn't it? - Right. You wouldn't even know this was here. Oh, look at the firing holes. Kind of looks like you can go inside. This is just the first level and then there's two others above. - Right, right. [inaudible] - Oh, yeah. You can get all up there, second, and a third level. This is really-- this is the part of the war you don't really get to see. [grunts] You can see the whole operation up here. Look how every, you know, 20 degrees or so, you can see another part of the battlefield. And the thing is, you know, there's a village right here. This is what this was protecting, this bridge in the village. There was a lot of combat right here. Look at this. The bunker is still here 40 years later. It survived a lot of mortar, a lot of bombing. And you can see why. Look at this rebar. The whole thing is just laced with rebar. Yeah, and it creates a web of steel, steel and concrete. I mean, no wonder it's still here. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): This bunker is made of three levels. The first level is the largest, with firing holes facing the river, the bridge, and the road. The second and third levels were lookout posts, where soldiers would scout enemy positions. These bunkers withstood lots of deadly bombings. Like those used in World War II, they were made with rebar reinforced concrete, making them 20 times stronger than an ordinary concrete structure. 40 years ago, these bunkers would have been filled with US and South Vietnamese soldiers, ducking NVA artillery. So you-- DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): When Sonny was an infantry soldier, he would have had a front row seat to the chaos that surrounded them. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Most of the time, the soldiers stationed here remained outside the bunker, until they came under heavy bombardment. Yeah. OK. So there was a soldier posted at each one of these-- Right. Right. --openings. DON WILDMAN: OK. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The stations were set up. So southern army soldiers could look out for covert groups of Viet Cong, guerilla soldiers that infiltrated the south. But visibility was poor from here. So only in heavy fire where the soldiers supposed to duck inside. DON WILDMAN: So it was-- DON WILDMAN: Yeah. DON WILDMAN: OK. What was it like for the soldiers when they were fighting inside here? Right. So that you could the building might withstand it. But the shock wave coming right was still hurt and maybe kill the people inside. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): These bunkers were made to protect the soldiers from the shrapnel of a North Vietnamese RPG or rocket propelled grenade, which would fly in at 650 miles per hour. But the biggest problem was the shortwave. Sound waves that penetrated through the firing holes if an RPG landed within three feet of the bunker. It would explode with the force of 158 decibels. Human eardrums can rupture at 150 decibels. So the pressure of the bomb often caused soldiers' ears to literally rupture and bleed. Many American soldiers went home with post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss, or even major brain damage. But there was no way around it. In order to see and fire at the enemy, soldiers had to risk their hearing, and sometimes, their lives. Look at this. These ones. They all got their. Insignia these would have been stations for each soldier as they were positioned like this, shooting down all around. When the Viet Cong came over. the 17th parallel on their way down South. They were winning these skirmishes, these battles to take over forts like this little bunkers. And that's how they took the country, one bunker at a time. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): This is Ho Chi Minh City. But in April 1975, it was still Saigon and still the capital of South Vietnam, but just barely. The South and its US allies had been worn down by a decade of fighting and invisible relentless army. And the end was in sight. For 10 years, the nerve center for the South Vietnamese and American forces was in a top secret ultramodern bunker deep beneath the presidential palace. Five stories high, this compound covers a whole city block. It took three years to build. And during the Vietnam War, this was the safest place in Saigon for the president himself to hide. It was the White House and the Pentagon, all rolled into one. Hello, [inaudible]. - Nice to meet you today. - Thanks. You too. So this is the Vietnamese White House. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): During the Vietnamese war, calls were made inside these walls that sent thousands to their deaths. This is the actual-- this is the Oval Office-- Yes --of the Vietnamese president. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): But this was war and this room was far too exposed. At the first sign of danger, the president and his men headed down a secret staircase into an eerie parallel underworld. And the real nexus of power during wartime. We were the first Western TV crew since the Vietnam War to gain access to the secret rooms beneath the presidential palace. Just beneath the surface, South Vietnamese leaders were safe from bullets, shrapnel, and hand grenades. And they could concentrate on the business of running a war. I see. There's all these little rooms. So this is filled with personnel who are on the phones, manning the whole battle. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Throughout the '60s and '70s, this room would have been buzzing. And on the other end of these primitive phones were American soldiers helping the South rid their country of communism. But even more amazing is that in these rooms, just beneath the streets of a busy metropolis, a war was planned and run without spy satellites, computers, or cell phones. So this is actually just for passing messages in and out. Yeah. It's very basic. Very basic, yeah. Basic messaging technology. Yes. And look, see this was when a telephone was a telephone. Yes. General Electric, so all this equipment is American made. Uh-huh. Because it's communicating with the Pentagon back home. This is all American equipment, look at this over here. This is like all what was left behind. When the war was being fought, I mean, they were out in the jungles. But the nerve center was right here. Oh, this sprawls out in every direction, doesn't it? You can imagine. I mean, this is like a mini Pentagon. It's a bunker down here. And they're fighting the whole war from here. And the further we get to the '70s, the more desperate things have become. And this is really where the last stand was made, in these hallways down below the palace. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): Peasants of Vinh Moc and Cu Chi had sought shelter underground, and so did the President of South Vietnam, even slept down here when the threat level was high. Yeah, OK. It's not very cozy, huh? Very Spartan. What is this stairway here? The bodyguards? The presidential security is down there? Yes. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): The president's secret bomb shelter was 30 feet below the surface on the second floor of the bunker. If there was a direct attack on the palace and no time to evacuate, this is where the president would make his last stand. When there was no immediate danger, the war would be run from the war rooms above on the first floor of the bunker. And this entire subterranean structure was protected with steel plates against direct hits from bombs. But in the end, none of this was enough to stop the North Vietnamese. [inaudible] led me from the basement to the roof of the palace, the best seat in the house to witness the end of an era. Building here? Top of building here. [inaudible] You can really get the perspective here. Yes. This is the famous gate. Mm-hmm. I've seen the pictures. So there's like a long line of tanks down there. Yes. DON WILDMAN: That road. DON WILDMAN (VOICEOVER): It was the spring of 1975, the US had signed a cease fire treaty with North Vietnam. And the American ground troops were gone. South Vietnamese President Thieu vowed to keep fighting. But as NVA forces converged on Saigon, he fled the country. On April 29, thousands of panicked civilians scrambled to escape the city, desperately trying to fight their way onto a handful of US evacuation helicopters. On April 30, North Vietnamese tanks entered the city and headed right here for the presidential palace. The conflict had dragged on for 14 long years. And then it was over, so quickly that all this equipment was left behind, mute reminders to a war. Independence Hall was renamed Reunification Palace under the new government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. And all of this, the basement fortress, the tunnels, the trenches, the caves bear witness to the painful birth of a country, one that would not exist today without ancient engineering techniques, and a people's willingness to live, and fight underground
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Channel: HISTORY
Views: 74,757
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, cities of the underworld, history cities of the underworld, cities of the underworld show, cities of the underworld full episodes, cities of the underworld clips, full episodes, underground tunnels, history shows stream free, history shows streaming, cities of the underworld scenes, documentary history channel, the history channel, season 2, episode 2, Vietnam, Vietnam War, soldiers, Vietnam jungle, jungle, vietnam
Id: LBrVYczbBlE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 42min 19sec (2539 seconds)
Published: Wed Feb 15 2023
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