ABSTRACT
Located in the centre of South East Asia, Viet Nam forms an S-shaped strip on the eastern seaboard of the Indochinese Peninsula, linking to the Asian continent and looking out on the Pacific Ocean. Its land area is about 331,668 square kilometres and the total population in 2010 was 86.9 million (General Statistics Office Vietnam 2010b: 55) making it the third largest country in Southeast Asia. Political and social forces caused radical changes in Viet Nam during the second half of the twentieth century. These changes went far beyond those in the earlier history of the country and have forced dramatic changes in Viet Nam compared to neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia.
