The size of Oregon and the shape of Italy, Laos is landlocked in the north-central portion of mainland Southeast Asia. It is surrounded by five more populous neighbors: China to the north. Vietnam to the east. Cambodia and Thailand to the south and Burma to the west. The northern half of the country is covered in towering hill masses and slate-black limestone karst spires. In the northeast, the mountains give way to the "Plaine Des Jarres," known commonly as the PDJ, a diamond-shaped patch of dairy land covered with giant stone burial urns dating back thousands of years.
The southern half of the country runs in a narrow panhandle, which empties onto the Bolovens Plateau. This area was covered earlier this century by French coffee plantations and vacation villas. Down the eastern edge of the panhandle arc the Annamite Corilleras. a towering mountain range that covers most of the 1.323 mile border with Vietnam. On the western edge and forming a common border with Thailand is the Mekong River.
The climate of Laos roughly divides the year in half. Beginning in late May are five months of heavy tropical rains. Five more months, beginning in December, have high temperatures and little rain. A short spring and fall connect these rainy and dry seasons.
During the Second Indochina War, Laos was home to approximately three million persons. Of these, nearly half were lowland Laotians from the Tai linguistic group that migrated from southern China beginning in the Thirteenth Century. The vast majority of these lowlanders are peasant farmers and Buddhists.
Книга посвящена гражданской войне в Лаосе в 1954-1975 гг.
War in Laos 1954-1975 (Armor Specials 6063)
Издательство: Squadron/Signal publications
Год издания: 1994
Серия: Armor Specials 6063
Автор: Kenneth Conboy
ISBN: 0897473159
Страниц: 64
Формат: PDF - rar
Язык: (eng) англ яз.
Размер: 86,3 Мб
