After over one thousand years under the Chinese domination, the Vietnamese ambition on Territory expansion became unbearable to their weak neighbors in the south. The most well known campaign of all was Nam Tien (Southward Movement), which aimed at the Kingdom of Champa as their first target. As the campaign became reality, the southern border had been moved south as planned, Ly Thanh Tong (1054-1072), then renamed the country to Dai Viet (Great Vietnam). All of Vietnamese rulers continued to implement this campaign as their highest priority, and their border continued to open up to the south. While struggling for internal power, the Vietnamese always used the conflicts as opportunities to “borrow” neighbor’s territories for regrouping their forces or asking for asylum. When the wars were over, the grantor’s territory and their people would suffer great losses, not Vietnam. Besides, the Vietnamese leaders also used inter-marriage as another means of manipulation to capture their neighbors’ territories. The loss of Kampuchea Krom to Vietnamese was the result of these cunning practices. Champa and Laos have gone through the same experience, and the results were the undeniable facts of the recent world history.
