f age

Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 21,149,579 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 13,335,337 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 949,532 (2000 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $650 million (FY98)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.5% (FY98)

@Vietnam:Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: maritime boundary with Cambodia not defined;
involved in a complex dispute over the Spratly Islands with China,
Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and possibly Brunei; maritime boundary
with Thailand resolved, August 1997; maritime boundary dispute with
China in the Gulf of Tonkin; Paracel Islands occupied by China but
claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan; offshore islands and sections of
boundary with Cambodia are in dispute; agreement on land border with
China was signed in December 1999, but details of alignment have not
been made public

Illicit drugs: minor producer of opium poppy with 2,100 hectares
cultivated in 1999, capable of producing 11 metric tons of opium;
probably minor transit point for Southeast Asian heroin destined for
the US and Europe; growing opium/heroin addiction; possible
small-scale heroin production

______________________________________________________________________

VIRGIN ISLANDS

@Virgin Islands:Introduction

Background: During the 17th century, the archipelago was divided into
two territorial units, one English and the other Danish. Sugarcane,
produced by slave labor, drove the islands' economy during the 18th
and early 19th centuries. In 1917, the US purchased the Danish
portion, which had been in economic decline since the abolition of
slavery in 1848.

@Virgin Islands:Geography

Location: Caribbean, islands between the Caribbean Sea and the North
Atlantic Ocean, east of Puerto Rico

Geographic coordinates: 18 20 N, 64 50 W

Map references: Central America and the Caribbean

Area:
total: 352 sq km
land: 349 sq km
water: 3 sq km

Area - comparative: twice the size of Washington, DC

Land boundaries: 0 km

Coastline: 188 km

Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

Climate: subtropical, tempered by easterly trade winds, relatively low
humidity, little seasonal temperature variation; rainy season May to
November

Terrain: mostly hilly to rugged and mountainous with little level land

Elevation extremes:
lowest p