Vietnam

D

Local Government

A system of people’s councils, each representing a local jurisdiction, administers local government in Vietnam. Each council has a people’s committee elected from it to serve as an executive. The country is divided into 60 provinces and 3 municipalities: Hanoi, Haiphong, and Ho Chi Minh City. The city of Đa Nãng is under central administration.

E

Health and Welfare

A national social security system is in operation in Vietnam. The average life expectancy at birth in 2007 was 68 years for men and 74 years for women. Infant mortality in 2007 was 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2004 the nation had 1 doctor per 1,871 people and in 2001 there was 1 hospital bed for every 417 people. Vietnam and the US have agreed to conduct joint research on the effects on the population of Agent Orange, the defoliant widely used in the Vietnam War

F

Defence

The Vietnamese armed forces totalled 484,000 troops in 2004, comprising an army (412,000 personnel), a navy (42,000 personnel including 30,000 marines), an air force (30,000 personnel), and an air defence force (15,000 personnel). From two to three years of military service are compulsory. Much of the equipment used by the military consists of abandoned American-made matériel and arms obtained from Vietnam’s allies, particularly the former Soviet Union. In 2001 it was announced that women would be conscripted into the army for the first time since the Vietnam War.

G

International Organizations

Vietnam is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) since January 2007.

VI

History

The Vietnamese first appeared in history as one of many scattered peoples living in what is now south China and northern Vietnam just before the beginning of the Christian era. According to local tradition, the small Vietnamese kingdom of Au Lac, located in the heart of the Red River valley, was founded by a line of legendary kings who had ruled over the ancient kingdom of Van Lang for thousands of years. Historical evidence to substantiate this tradition is scanty, but archaeological findings indicate that the early peoples of the Red River delta area may have been among the first East Asians to practise agriculture, and that by the 1st century bc they had achieved a relatively advanced level of Bronze Age civilization.