The Cu Chi tunnels of the Vietnam War

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies.

The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietnamese army in their victory in the war in 1975.

In 2017 Alex Last spoke to Le Van Lang, a Viet Cong veteran who helped construct the tunnels in the Cu Chi District, which is 20km north of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: A former VietCong soldier in the tunnels in 1978. Credit: Jean-Claude LABBE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:40.3	Music in your life, check out BBC Sounds. Hello, you're listening to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:47.4	We're the daily podcast that takes you back to moments in history with the people who were there.
0:52.8	If that sounds like something that should be part of your day-to-day listening,
0:56.3	make sure you subscribe and turn on your push notifications
0:59.0	for wherever you get your BBC podcasts, so that you never miss an episode.
1:04.4	50 years ago, the Vietnam War came to an end with the victory for North Vietnamese forces.
1:10.1	In 2017, Alex Las spoke to a Vietnamese veteran
1:13.5	who built, lived and fought in a network of underground tunnels during the war.
1:25.2	The tunnels protected people's lives.
1:28.2	That way, we survived and could fight hard.
1:31.7	Le Van Lang was born in 1933 in the rural district of Koochee,
1:36.9	just 20 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City, then called Saigon.
1:42.6	During the Vietnam War, he was part of the communist-led insurgency
1:46.3	against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies.
1:52.8	It was war. I could die any time.
	...

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