The Tunnels of Cu Chi - A Remarkable Story of War in Vietnam (Broché)

The battle in the tunnels of Cu Chi was fought with cunning and savagery between Viet Cong guerrillas and special teams of US infantrymen called "Tunnel Rats". The location: the 200-mile labyrinth of underground tunnels and secret chambers that the Viet Cong had dug around Saigon. The Tunnel Rats were GIs of legendary skill and courage. Armed only with knives and pistols, they fought against a cruel and ingenious enemy inside the booby-trapped blackness of the tunnels. For the Viet Cong the tunnel network became their battlefield, their barracks and their arms factories, as the ground above was pounded to dust by American shells and bombs. Tom Mangold and John Penycate have talked to the soldiers on both sides and drawn on many declassified documents to tell this story of endurance and heroism. As the use of coalition Special Forces in Iraq has recently shown, an army has to adapt to its enemy's chosen battleground. This is the first history of Vietnam's tunnel war - a narrative of deadly ingenuity and remarkable courage on both sides.