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Nguyen Toan · A history learner. Easy to forget but eager to learn.Updated 1y

How did the Vietnamese survive in the tunnels they built to evade American troops during the Vietnam War?

There is a chapter about Cu Chi Tunnel in this book : Bare Feet, Iron Will Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam’s Battlefield. by James G. Zumwalt.

He came to Vietnam after the war, against Vietnamese but latterly changed his view a little bit. It is worth reading, easy to read from US perspective if you want to research about life in tunnels.

Below are introduction about background and the author via publisher in Amazon.

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Interested in the Sino-Vietnamese War of 19794y

Andrew Dang · 

In short answer, during the Sino-Vietnamese War, after suffering a large number of casualties and before the coming of the Vietnamese crack troops, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (P.L.A) had to withdraw their forces. The “road to Hanoi lay open and the city could have fallen to China” was also a war myth. In fact, all the roads from the border regions to Hanoi were heavily fortified and garrisoned by several main force divisions of the People’s Army of Vietnam (P.A.V.N).

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The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces commonly wore rubber sandals (often called “Ho Chi Minh sandals” or dép lốp) for practical, tactical, economic, and cultural reasons. Key factors:

• Cost and availability
  • Made from recycled car or truck tire soles, these sandals were extremely cheap to produce and easy to repair or replace in the field.
  • Local cobblers could cut and strap soles quickly using scrap materials, enabling mass distribution without industrial supply lines.
• Durability and suitability for terrain
  • Thick tire rubber resisted sharp stones, thorns, and rough trails better than many civilian shoes.
  • Rubber tolerates recurrent wet conditions—jungle streams, mud, monsoon rains—without rapid deterioration that leather suffers from.
• Maintenance and logistics
  • Minimal maintenance required (no polishing, waterproofing); replacements were simple.
  • Lightweight and compact for guerrilla mobility; easier to carry spares than heavy boots.
• Noise discipline and stealth
  • Thin, flexible soles allowed quieter movement over hard jungle paths and dry leaves compared with rigid-soled boots.
  • Soldiers could move more silently during ambushes, reconnaissance, and tunnel work.
• Cultural and practical familiarity
  • Many Vietnamese civilians already used similar footwear for daily life; soldiers were accustomed to them from childhood.
  • Sandals dried quickly and were comfortable during long patrols in hot, humid climate.
• Tactical trade-offs
  • Sandals offered speed, silence, and simplicity but less protection against punctures, snakebite, and extreme rough ground than combat boots.
  • Viet Cong tactics emphasized mobility, concealment, and use of local terrain (trails, rice paddies, tunnels), reducing need for heavy foot protection.

Examples and outcomes

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Kien Do · Language Teacher (Retired)Updated Dec 7

Yes. They suffered — big time.

Life in South Vietnam after the Communist takeover in 1975 was marked by political oppression, property confiscation, economic hardship, and deep social upheaval.

There was a popular saying at the time: “If a lamp post could walk, it would flee the country too.”

That’s how bad it was, in a nutshell.

Let me expand — just a little.

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Bob Wilson · Former Professional geoscientist 7mo

I think most people are aware of the horrors that happened during the Vietnam war.

But it’s seldom talked about.

Agent Orange was used to kill the jungle, with no attention paid to the effects of people who were soaked in it.

Dan McDermott · Former Worked in Land Surveying (Retired}7y

The North Vietnamese ( NVA) forces suffered huge losses in men and materiel. The bulk of the ground fighting was carried by the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) who defended their country ferociously. They still do not receive adequate credit and recognition.

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Michael Rohde · Former Criminal Defense Investigator (1980–2003)6y

The North Vietnamese Army was a very capable force. The South Koreans in Vietnam, the Marines called them ROKs for Republic of Korea, were known as fierce fighters who also gave no quarter. Many considered their actions war crimes because they could be indiscriminate with their fire power and kill noncombatants.

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Kevin Unruh · 5y

Original Question Near the end of the Vietnam war, the US had practically won. Viet Cong were surrendering in record numbers, their main forces annihilated and their leaders begging for peace. Why would the US pull out when they had utterly crushed the Vietnamese?

Well, first lets edit this for based on the history as the rest of the world knows it.

Question should be: Near the end of the Vietnam war, the US had practically won. Why would the US pull out when they had utterly crushed the Vietnamese?

Ah, that’s better.

Btw, we hadn’t utterly crushed them, but had made life much more intolerable than it had been the previous 7 years of open conflict. Enough so that the North Vietnamese were willing to negotiate an actual end.

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Henry R. Greenfield 50+ Yrs: India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Europe
Lives in Europe (2023–present)4y

Having lived 5 years in Vietnam, I am disappointed with the answers. Here is my view based on my direct experience from 1992–98 living there and subsequently doing business from outside of Vietnam with the country.