I read a very interesting book last night about the odyssey that these historically maligned Teutonic people took from the Oder valley round through the Roman province Gaul through Spain, then along northern Africa, and eventually to Italy, all in the space of a couple of generations. This, perhaps biased article held the belief that the use thereafter of 'vandal' to mean 'someone who wilfully destroys or defaces property' was a quite unfair term to cull from the group. They were only, after all, a group of people looking for a peaceful home, so the article. The fact that 'they have no other land' clearly entitled them to a lot of bloody unrest though. Seems to be a common excuse for justifying all sorts of occupations and wars I guess. After taking Italy the wars did not stop either - their 'empire' grew and quickly collapsed in on itself.
Oh well, thought it an interesting story behind quite a common word.