Americans’ navigational powers for surfing TV may be legendary, however they are notoriously bad with geography. Not only haven’t they a clue as to the location of foreign countries, but many can place New York City on a USA map. This problem was highlighted by a Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1DRdGjOzwA in which common folks on the sidewalks are asked from which country would be the best to invade Iran.
They had no idea where Iran was, but even highly educated politicians are subject to this ignorance as witnessed by the Thai PM’s website, in which he claims several parts of Cambodia as belonging to Thailand.
Siem Reap, Battambang and Preah Vihear were all mentioned on www.ilovethailnd.com as having been annexed by Thailand in 1794 and then forcibly returned to Cambodia by the 1907 Franco-Siamese Treaty. Many border areas of Thailand are still Khmer speaking, but none are restive for release from the Thai way of life.
Still nothing like raising the specter of nationalism to gain support for your government.
It worked fopr Hitler and just as well for GW Bush.
And no one does copies as good as the Thais, unless it’s the Chinese.
The above map is from 1698. Not much sense in going to those records. Unless you want to redraw the entire map of SE Asia.