The Mekong Delta encompasses approximately 15,000 square miles.  Its land area made up nearly a quarter of South Vietnam’s 67,108 square miles.  The delta begins on the outskirts of Saigon and extends 193 miles as the crow flies to the southernmost tip of Vietnam, at the Ca Mau peninsula.  In the 1950s and 1960s, the delta possessed the highest population density of any area within South Vietnam.  And in 1970, U.S. intelligence estimated that the three delta provinces immediately surrounding Saigon, Long An, Hau Nghia, and Gia Dinh, each had districts that held populations in excess of 1,810 persons per square mile [“Indochina Precipitation and Monsoon Airflow Map,” 1970, Bergerud, Tropic Thunder, 136].  Even the rural areas of the central delta, which included the paddy country surrounding My Tho, Vinh Long, Can Tho and Long Xuyen, contained populations of between 520 and 1810 persons per square mile.  The only other area within Vietnam that contained such a high population over such a large area was the Red River Delta of the North.  The least populated, most remote, regions within the delta existed in the Ca Mau peninsula and U Minh Forest.  Both of those areas held only 2.6 to 26 persons per square mile.  Not coincidently, those two isolated patches of territory served as Viet Cong base areas during the First and Second Indochina wars. Continue Reading »