Vietnam

Vietnam is situated in South East Asia and shares the Indochinese peninsula with Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Malaysia. It is a tropical zone with 80% of the country covered by tropical vegetation and is approximately the size of California. Vietnam has two large rivers running through it: the Red River in the North and the Mekong River, which is in the south.

Vietnamese is a combination of Cambodian, Chinese, and Thai. It is a tonal language, which makes it incredibly difficult for Westerners to speak. One syllable could have six different inflections with completely different meanings. During the Vietnam War, there were over 40 million people who inhabited the country. The racial ancestors of the Viet Vietnamese are a mix of Chinese and non-Chinese people of Mongolian Descent as well as those of Indonesian and Filipino heritage and at least 54 minority ethnic groups. More than half of the population lives in the coastal plains and lowlands formed from the two river deltas. Rural villages are home to 85% of the Vietnamese population whose lives are centered on subsistence farming or fishing.

Sources:

Camp, Norman M. US Army Psychiatry in the Vietnam War, New Challenges in Extended 
Counterinsurgency Warfare, 2014. Ed. Linette Sparacino. Fort Sam Houstan: Surgeon General Borden Institute, US Army Medical Department Center & School, 2015. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.