How effective were the Vietcong tactics of underground tunnels and booby traps in the Vietnam War?
The Vietnam War was a war that started during the late 1950s and ended during the late 1970s. The Vietnam War ended in the Vietcong victory over America. I believe that this was due to the underground ‘labyrinth’ of tunnels and the vast usage of guerrilla warfare used by the Vietcong. Their usage of the tunnels and booby traps were in my opinion ingenious.
The variety of the booby traps that were used was astounding. Homemade mines and bombs, punji sticks, grenade traps, pit traps, deadfalls, cross-bow traps and other devices were used by them. The booby traps ranged from punji sticks to an assortment of grenades, mines and explosive …show more content…

There were bases that support troops for hours so even if a village was in enemy territory, the Vietcong members that were still underneath were able to conduct offensive operations.
As the United States relied heavily on aerial bombing, North Vietnamese and VC troops went underground in order to survive and continue their guerrilla tactics against the much better-supplied enemy. In heavily bombed areas, people spent much of their life underground, and the Cu Chi tunnels grew to house entire underground villages, in effect, with living quarters, kitchens, ordnance factories, hospitals and bomb shelters. The lives that they led in these tunnels were very harsh. The spaces were very cramped, the air was of poor quality and the tunnels were filled with insects and rats. Also no sunlight meant that, the operations that took place were at night when it was dark.
The biggest tunnel system that was built was an extensive set of tunnels that ran in the Cu Chi district. http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/guerrilla/index.html states that the base area at Cu Chi was a vast network, with nearly 200 miles of tunnels. Any facility used by the Vietcong had almost immediate underground access. At regular intervals there were paths that led up to the surface and other entrances. In conclusion I think that the tunnels and booby traps were very effective as they were the best types