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A World Beneath The War

by ssds2017 | Jul 26, 2021

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Janet Gardner and film crew stand on the bridge that forms the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) dividing North and South Vietnam.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">This trap door marks the entrance to a world most Americans would find difficult to imagine.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Pham Thanh Liem was an artist who lived underground for most of the war years. His job was to keep up the spirits of the people in Vinh Moc.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Artist Pham Thanh Liem created a mural celebrating the Vinh Moc tunnels and the villagers who dug them by hand</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">During the war, Vietnamese villagers survived by fishing at night while the Americans fought during the day.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">It’s hot down in the tunnels and both cameraman Len McClure and Janet were bathed in sweat from the July heat.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Pham Hoang Van, Liem’s son, visited the tunnels after the ‘American War’ to learn how his father had spent the war. He is also a Professor of Fine Arts and a lacquer artist.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">In 1987, Janet Gardner became one of the first Americans to visit Vietnam and see the tunnels at Vinh Moc. Not many felt comfortable penetrating the cool, dark world that we would eventually film.</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Janet Gardner with Vietnamese artist Pham Thanh Liem (painting by Liem) shows the world underground created by villagers in Vinh Moc village along the coast of central Viet Nam during the 1960s. Photo from Vietnam News Service</span>

<span style="color: #000000 !important;font-size: 14pt">Captain Robert I. Biss, US Army ret., was held as a prisoner of war in the tunnels overnight after his plane was shot down by militia women.</span>

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