Fighting in the Unknown: Lawful Measures to Neutralize Subterranean Threats
Fighting in the Unknown: Lawful Measures to
Neutralize Subterranean Threats
Michael W. Meier*
INTRODUCTION
In January of 1966, the war in Vietnam was expanding as the United States had
begun to send regular combat units as opposed to advisers as in previous years. In
one engagement, eight thousand U.S. and Australian forces descended on an area
that had been heavily bombed in the hopes of cleaning up remnants of the Viet
Cong suspected to be in the area. However, when the joint forces arrived, they
only found some deserted fortifications, rice, and other evidence that suggested a
large force had once been there. No one could figure out where the Viet Cong had
gone. This puzzle was solved when one American Soldier sat down to rest and
thought he had been stung or bitten by something. As he searched to find what bit
him, he discovered it was a nail protruding from a wooden hatch. This accidental
discovery of the hatch uncovered a massive underground complex known as the
Cu Chi tunnels, which spanned over fourteen miles. This series of tunnels was
just one of many tunnel complexes that U.S. forces would discover during the
conflict in Vietnam.
1
Subterranean operations have been an aspect of warfare since the beginning of
recorded history. For thousands of years, cities were constructed with large defen-
sive walls to provide protection for its citizens. Castles and fortresses built during
the Middle Ages provided protection for the population while invaders would
build tunnels to collapse walls and breach the city’s defenses. The American
Civil War saw Union forces dig sabotage tunnels beneath Confederate lines and
detonate large amounts of explosives. On the island of Gibraltar, the British con-
structed tunnels for almost two hundred years. In World War II, the Germans did
much of their V-2 rocket production in underground facilities. More recently,
tunnels have been used by drug smugglers across the borders of the United States
and by the Palestinians across the borders in Israel and Egypt.
2
Subterranean threats do not simply come from tunnels. Urban populations are
continuing to rise and, if current trends continue, the United Nations projects
* Michael W. Meier is the Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters
with the Department of the Army. The author wants to thank Professor Eric Talbot Jensen and the
Brigham Young University Law School and Human Rights Voices for hosting a workshop on Hybrid
Armed Conflicts, which was the basis for this article. The views expressed in this Article are those of the
author in his personal capacity and should not be understood as representing those of the Department of
the Army or any other United States government entity. © 2021, Michael W. Meier.
1. Nelson Smithwick, Down and Dirty: The Tunnel Rats of Vietnam, STMU HISTORY MEDIA (Apr.
28, 2017), https://perma.cc/5YB7-7STR.
2. U.S. DEP’T OF ARMY, TECHNIQUES PUB., No. 3-21.51, SUBTERRANEAN OPERATIONS vii (Nov. 01,
2019) [hereinafter ATP 3-21.51].
771
two-thirds of the world’s population will reside in large, metropolitan areas, or
megacities.
3
By 2030, the United Nations predicts the world’s thirty megacities
will also double to sixty. Large-scale cities will increase from forty-five to
eighty-eight.
4
Megacity combat is much different than fighting in open terrain.
Cities have subways and sewers – often multiple layers of them that cross the
entire city. These factors make the environment far more complex. When operat-
ing within these megacities, soldiers are very likely to only think in two dimen-
sions, but they must learn to think and fight in three dimensions.
5
Subway
entrances and tunnels as well as manholes and sewer systems will afford an ad-
versary numerous opportunities to strike unexpectedly. Additionally, many
adversaries will have subterranean facilities that function as national command
and control centers, communication facilities, and protection for civilian leaders.
One of the most well documented tunnel systems is the one running directly
between North and South Korea. North Korea not only has tunnels for troops to
come across the demilitarized zone (DMZ), but there are tunnel systems for artil-
lery as well as nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. These tunnels, which
were first discovered in 1974, were built as a means to invade South Korea.
6
For
example, the first tunnel was large enough to move two thousand troops per hour
under the DMZ. In 1978, in response to a tip from a North Korean defector, a
larger tunnel that was over a mile long and nearly seven feet wide was
discovered.
7
As the U.S. Department of Defense shifts its focus from counter-insurgency
and counter-terrorism operations to future peer-to-peer or near-peer conflicts, it
must also consider that subterranean systems will likely play an increasing role
both in friendly and adversary operations.
8
Several countries, such as Russia,
9
3. Joe Lacdan, Warfare in Megacities: A New Frontier In Military Operations, U.S. ARMY (May 24,
2018), https://perma.cc/9RKW-XYV6.
4. Id.
5. Nick Nethery, Prepare to Fight in Megacities, U.S. NAVAL INST. (Aug. 2018), https://perma.cc/
S3UB-AYCD.
6. Kyle Mizokami, North Korea’s Secret Weapon: Underground Air Bases, NAT’L INT. (Jan. 31,
2018), https://perma.cc/9X95-B5Y3.
7. Id.
8. DEP’T OF DEF., SUMMARY OF THE 2018 NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA 4 (2018), https://perma.cc/8DJ3-PGMF (“Long-term strategic competitions with China and
Russia are the principal priorities for the Department, and require both increased and sustained
investment, because of the magnitude of the threats they pose to U.S. security and prosperity today, and
the potential for those threats to increase in the future. Concurrently, the Department will sustain its
efforts to deter and counter rogue regimes such as North Korea and Iran, defeat terrorist threats to the
United States, and consolidate our gains in Iraq and Afghanistan while moving to a more resource-
sustainable approach.”).
9. Michael R. Gordon, Despite Cold War’s End, Russia Keeps Building a Secret Complex, N.Y.
TIMES (Apr. 16, 1996), https://perma.cc/Y5ZW-L2PG. In the 1950s, Russia began constructing a
massive underground military complex inside the Yamantau mountain in the southern Ural mountains.
Construction was still ongoing into the 1990s. There are also other underground complexes that were
built during the Soviet era. Id.
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