Officially Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, Vietnamese Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam, country situated along the eastern coast of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia.

The country's maximum length from northwest to southeast is about 1,025 miles (1,650 km), and maximum width from east to west is about 340 miles (550 km) in the north and about 210 miles (340 km) in the south.

Viet Nam is bordered on the north by China; on the east and south by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea; on the southwest by the Gulf of Thailand; and on the west by Laos and Cambodia. The capital is Hanoi. Area 127,816 square miles (331,041 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 74,545,000.