# Củ Chi tunnels

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Củ Chi tunnels," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cu-chi-tunnels/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The 250-kilometre tunnel network dug by the Viet Cong outside Saigon, which John Kiriakou visited in 2026 and could not physically enter. He attributes the tunnels' viability to the malnutrition of the people who dug them.*

- **Length:** 250 kilometres
- **Depths:** Three, six and twenty metres
- **Ventilation:** Shafts disguised as termite mounds and bamboo groves
- **Use:** Moving weapons and ammunition

The Viet Cong dug 250 kilometres of tunnels outside Saigon, used to move weapons and ammunition, at depths of three, six and twenty metres.[1][2] Kiriakou visited during [his 2026 trip](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-vietnam-visit-2026) and reports failing the entrance test at a hole that had been widened for tourists: *"I'm not a fat guy, but my chest was too big. I literally could not get into the hole… And then these guys had to pull me out because I was stuck."*[3]

He draws the causal chain the other way round from the usual telling. The tunnels worked because the people who dug them were small, and they were small because they were hungry: the Vietnamese *"had been malnourished for so many years"* and were *"as a result much much smaller than the average American soldier. So they took advantage of that by digging these tunnels."*[3][2]

The engineering he singles out is the ventilation: *"the ventilation systems are incredibly sophisticated. You don't even know that these are ventilation pipes because they're disguised as termite mounds or disguised as bamboo groves."*[2][4]

## See also

- [Kiriakou's visit to Vietnam (2026)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-vietnam-visit-2026)
- [Vietnam War](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/vietnam-war)

## Sources

1. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 03:04. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/
2. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 04:10. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/
3. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 03:37. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/
4. 2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle, at 04:40. Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-08-11-john-kiriakou-a-shocking-new-alliance-emerges-in-the-middle/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cu-chi-tunnels/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt