Publisher's Synopsis
What is Vietnam today? A nation that is experiencing something like peace for the first time in two millennia. A nation of 60 million, including ethnic Viets and remote hill tribe minorities. An incredibly diverse landscpe that ranges from tropical beaches and mangrove swamps to picture-postcard rice paddies and thick rainforest. Vietnam is Asia's least developed nation, a country in economic crisis. But it is still a place under intense scrutiny by Japanese, European, and - secretly, because of a trade embargo - American investors.;It is a nation of contradictions - a communist state with micro-scale capitalism thriving in the streets; America's deadly enemy, yet seemingly devoid of anyone who bears ill will toward the US; a poorly developed nation, yet with an historic architecture that rivals any in Asia.;In chapters organized geographically, from South to North, this book explores the many faces of Vietnam today both in text and in photographs.
