Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam – Hype and Reality.
Image from “Cu Chi Guerrillas” Cu Chi Tunnel, 1967.
One of the utmost interesting things they show you when you inspect the Cu Chi Tunnels exhibit in Vietnam – provided you can muster a sufficient sense of irony – is the kitschy propaganda video “Cu Chi Guerrillas” (shot in 1967, in flickery black and white), depicting Cu Chi’s valiant struggle in provision for the invaders.
It alternates between fun (awww, cute teenage guerrillas!) and grisly (momentary shots of dead American servicemen… thankfully it’s in black and white). But overall, it’s enlightening – a lo at how the Vietnamese establishment is shaping the Vietnam War into its own revolutionary moment in history.
I asked an American Vietnam War long practised about it, and he wasn’t angry or hurt; he just shrugged his shoulders and said, “They won… the winners get to rewrite history.”
Click “read more” to see three excerpts from the video. Or click through to our article on Cu Chi Tunnels to see the reality behind the hype.
The propaganda video goes to great lengths burnishing the legend of the Cu Chi tunnels, painting a rosy picture of underground life and an optimistic image of the scale of the tunnels.
The video also chronicles separate guerrillas working in the Cu Chi area – check out the jarring contrast between the cuteness of the last guerrilla (see top image) and her deadly earnest brandishing a grenade launcher.
The video shows how American weapons are recycled into jury-rigged mines. The narrator seems to take particular delight in the many “death traps” awaiting American forces on the ground in Cu Chi.
The American veteran’s perspective is too important not to include here. Here’s a video of John Rupp talking about his encounter with a Viet Cong guerrilla deep in a tunnel.