Aphotograph from Vietnam. An interesting photo. One has to put a lot into it to get a lot out of it.

The American soldier has put on a hearing device and is listening to the ground. He is listening to hear whether there is any movement in the tunnels dug into the earth. Bullet-proof vest, glasses, and stethoscope – he looks like a physician. The American soldier is the physician who wants to cure Vietnam. The Vietcong underground is the illness afflicting Vietnam (see ill. 24).

All of Vietnam was a warren of tunnels – tunnels connecting villages with each other, leading to underground food and ammunition depots, to underground workshops and operating rooms. The entrance to the tunnel system could be located under the ash of a camp fire or in a hollow tree. The Americans were physically too clumsy and big to crawl down into these tunnels. The weaker one hides. The tunnels are the counterpart to the sky. The Americans had almost a complete mastery of the skies over Vietnam; the Vietcong had almost total control of the region under Vietnamese soil.

When the French were besieged at Dien Bien Phu, they too tried to dig themselves in. But the weeks of bombardment had reduced the earth to such a fine powder that the trenches and tunnels began collapsing. The soil of Vietnam was not going to protect the French.

In April 1975, as the Americans were preparing their evacuation, Camp Davis, right at Saigon's airfield, remained behind, right in the middle of the area still controlled by the Thieu regime. In accordance with the provisions of the Paris cease-fire, some Vietcong soldiers were stationed there who had a status similar to that of a military mission. They were aware of the date of the last planned attack on Saigon and must have feared they might come under heavy shelling. They therefore began digging shelters under their barracks; and they had to do this at night as well as hide all the debris. The amount of danger they were exposed to could be inferred from the behaviour of the Vietcong in much the same way a farmer can predict the weather from the behaviour of his livestock.