Like Vietnamese who resent their domineering neighbor to the north, Cambodians have long
harbored deep resentment of Thailand and Vietnam both of which once colonized their country
and annexed large chunks of the ancient Khmer kingdom. Anti-Vietnamese riots flared up in the
early 1970s that led to tens of thousands of Vietnamese being murdered. Under the Khmer
Rouge, the murder of ethnic Thais and Vietnamese was systematically practiced (Kiernan 1996).
The Hun Sen government that came to power in 1979 thanks to Vietnamese support has not
condoned anti-Vietnamese resentment, although since the 1990s Cambodia no longer depends on
Vietnam for economic assistance or military support. Cambodian nationalism has recently turned
against Thailand when Cambodian rioters burned down the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh in
2003 following alleged remarks by a Thai movie star about Thai ownership of Angkor Wat
(Pavin 2009, 456).