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For a better understanding of the whole text facts about the geography of Vietnam are very useful and necessary. Vietnam has been likened to two rice bows at the opposite ends of a carrying pole. The rice bowls represent the Red River delta in the north and the Mekong River in the south, and the carrying pole is the long, narrow territory in between. The whole country is located in South East Asia and has a common frontier with China in the north and in the west with Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam is situated on a peninsula that separates the Gulf of Thailand from the South China Sea. In all, it\'s borders encompass 127300 square miles, or a land area slightly more than that in the state of New Mexico or about twice Austria. The border to China is built by mountains of great altitude. They attain elevations as great as 10000 feet. The other mountain ranges in Vietnam run along the frontier to Laos and Cambodia. So this country is well guarded from these sides. However, the coastline (3451 km) is not much shorter than that of the eastern seaboard of the United States. The country at its widest point is no more than about 250 miles across, and it is only 20 miles wide at it\'s narrowest waist.
Most visitors to Vietnam are overwhelmed by the sublime beauty of the country\'s natural setting. In the two biggest river deltas rice is grown and it is an experience for its own so take a look at the rich green rice paddies tended by peasant women in the conical hats. There are also no good or bad seasons for visiting Vietnam. When the climate in one region is wet, cold and unfriendly there will always be somewhere a place where the sun is shining at temperatures of more than 35 degrees. Most of the time the climate its very strange because of the mountains that cut the country into pieces. Local conditions can vary from frosty to warm in the winters. Between July and November violent and strong typhoons devastate the country. In Saigon the average temperature is about 27 degrees and the climate in the south is hot and wet. The winters in the north are quite cool and wet and carry a phenomenon with them which is called dust rain, a persistent drizzling rain, by the local population.
Despite widespread deforestation Vietnam\'s vegetation is as the same as you would find in a tropic country. Wide areas are discovered by dark, unfriendly jungle. During the war in the sixties the vegetation of the forests was still in good condition. The American soldiers had the biggest problems with the jungle and they even tried to get rid of it by dropping poison on the trees. This will be mentioned detail later.
In 1960, Vietnam\'s two largest cities were Hanoi (population about 600000) in the north and Saigon (population about 1,6 million) in the south. So these two metropols were opposing capitals in the war. They were almost exactly seven hundred miles away from each other. Other very important cities are Hue and Danang.
In contrast to the rather highly populated river deltas only very few citizens are living in the mountains and the central highland in the south. By the early sixties about 30,5 million people were living in Vietnam (approximately 16,5 million north of the 17th parallel and 14 million south of it) So the vast majority populated less than 20 percent of the whole territory. The remaining 1,5 million human beings lived in the more than one hundred thousand square miles and mountains. These peculiarities of geography and demography greatly affected the strategy, and arguments over strategy, of America\'s war in Vietnam.
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