Inside Cu Chi Tunnels, Traps, and the Invisible Enemy
Into the Hidden World The Vietnam War wasn’t always fought where soldiers could see the enemy. In areas like Cu Chi , just northwest of Saigon, an entire war raged beneath the ground. For men like JamesStanish of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment , whose memoir Images from Vietnam 1969 captures these realities, the jungle floor concealed as much danger as the firefights above. The Cu Chi tunnel networks stretched for miles, giving the Viet Cong the ability to vanish, move undetected, and reappear where least expected. Traps in the Jungle Floor Every step through the jungle carried a risk. The tunnels weren’t just passageways—they were part of an elaborate system laced with booby traps designed to cripple or kill. Soldiers confronted punji pits filled with sharpened stakes, trip wires connected to grenades, and mines hidden under a thin layer of leaves. The ground itself couldn’t be trusted. What looked like a safe patch of earth could, in an instant, turn into devastati...