Published on, Sept. 21 -- September 21, 2025 5:43 PM

#Cuchitunnels

Life is difficult. War makes it nearly impossible. Crawling through 47 meters of the Cu Chi tunnels outside Ho Chi Minh City, I came to understand this truth in the most visceral way.

The tunnels are not just narrow passages of earth; they are monuments to survival. In these underground labyrinths, Vietnamese fighters lived like vermin - side by side with rats, snakes, spiders, and termites.

Air came through disguised termite mounds, food was cooked with cotton-dampened smoke so no one could see. Families spent years twenty meters below ground.

Claustrophobic, slimy, suffocating - this was not merely endurance; it was defiance.

And yet, this was one of the most extra...