Vietnam ( listen) is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 90.5 million inhabitants as of 2011, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. Its diplomatic name is Viet Nam, and its long-form name is Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam;  listen). The name translates as "South Viet" and was adopted officially in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea – referred to in Vietnam as the East Sea (Biển Đông) – to the east.

The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two countries. Fighting between the two sides continued, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.