The Cuti Tunnels are a monument to the perseverance and fortitude of the Vietnamese people. This underground system of communication passages in the area of the village of Kuti, the name of which is given to these tunnels. They were actively used by Vietnamese guerrillas during the American aggression. Nowadays, the tunnel system is a landmark of the country. And the village has become a suburb of Ho Chi Minh City, and its population has almost tripled.
Construction of underground tunnels began during the period of French colonisation - in the late forties of the last century. They were built for nearly a quarter of a century. And by the time of the American invasion of Vietnam, it was an entire underground fortification with innumerable secret exits to the surface, rest rooms, weapons workshops, warehouses, hospitals and a command centre. The underground system was what an ill-armed peasant army could counter the planes, helicopters, artillery, and chemical weapons of the super-modern American army. This response proved effective. Tunnels linked and coordinated actions between individual Viet Cong units and allowed guerrillas to attack suddenly and in unexpected places. Extensive search operations by the U.S. military failed to locate the underground tunnels.
Thanks to the tunnels, the Viet Cong controlled a large rural area near Saigon. At the height of the war, the underground network stretched from the city to the Cambodian border and reached 250 kilometres. The small width of half a metre to a metre allowed Vietnamese of small stature to move freely through the passageways. It was not possible for a person with the parameters of an American soldier. To accommodate tourists, some of the passages had to be widened and increased in height.
The Vietnamese guerrillas lived in unimaginably difficult conditions, but their tunnels fulfilled their purpose. This veritable underground state played an important role in the liberation of Vietnam.
