Vinh Moc Tunnel, DMZ Viet Nam
Vinh Moc Tunnel Location
Vinh Moc Tunnel located in Vinh Moc village, Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province. During the War, it located on strategically the border of North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
History of Vinh Moc Tunnel
In 1965, the US created the Gulf of Tonkin incident to start a destructive war to the North Vietnam by air power, which Vinh Linh became the leading raiding target. During the years 1965 – 1972, Vinh Linh constantly bombed with a total of over half a million tons of bombs. In average, each person here has suffered 7 tons of US bombs.
This work was built at the beginning of 1965 and completed on 18 January 1966. The construction commander is Le Xuan Vy who just finished elementary school. The main tools are an old compass and hoes. The tunnel have a lot of apartments as a room for three to four people of a family.
In the Tunnel, there are wells, meeting room, clinics, maternity homes, surgery station, Hoang Cam stove, rice warehouse, and station phone station.
The tunnel structure
The tunnel soil is a clay, allowing easy hands digging of the tunnels. Air caused the clay to harden, making the walls extremely strong.
The tunnel network’s total length is nearly 2 km, structured into three floors. The first floor is 12 to 15 m deep user for fighting and temporary shelter. The second floor is 15 to 18 m deep for living, headquarters of the Party Committee, People’s Committee and Military Command. Third floor is around 22 m deep.
Whole the Vinh Moc tunnel system has 13 entrances, which has seven gates leading out to the sea, six gates up to the mountain. Each hatch is a vent. At the hatch, people installed anti-collapsed wooden and reinforced regularly to prevent landslide.
Residents’ life in Vinh Moc tunnel
Tunnels’ residents rarely go out, just really necessary and not dangerous. Furthermore, the life in the tunnel is quite dark, wet in winter and hot in summer. Most of people infected with skin, bone and eye diseases because of unsanitary condition. Tunnels’ villages save lighting materials such as oil, grease. They use lighting materials in necessary meetings, emergency patients, new born care,… In addition, their life also has big problems like lacking of food, basic necessities.
In order to maintain securely race, Vinh Moc tunnels’ families, clans, residents have to divide into many differently tunnels. At here, 17 children were born. Moreover, the tunnels are also place that 1,200 people lived during fierce war.
How to get Vinh Moc tunnel
Vinh Moc tunnel lie in the middle of Hue and Phong Nha. Therefore, Hue DMZ tour or Hue private car tour is the best way for tourists to visit this historical area.
