Ambassador of the United States to Cambodia | |
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ឯកអគ្គរដ្ឋទូតនៃសហរដ្ឋអាមេរិកប្រចាំនៅកម្ពុជា | |
Nominator | President of the United States |
Appointer | The President with Senate advice and consent |
Inaugural holder | Donald R. Heath as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary |
Formation | June 29, 1950 |
Website | U.S. Embassy – Phnom Penh |
This is a list of ambassadors of the United States to Cambodia.
Until 1953 Cambodia had been French protectorate as a part of French Indochina, but became independent on November 9, 1953. The United States had appointed its first envoy to Cambodia, Donald R. Heath, in 1950. Heath was a non-resident minister who was commissioned to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, while resident in Saigon.
Diplomatic relations between Cambodia and the United States were broken twice: The first time between 1965 and 1969, and the second time in 1975 just before the Pol Pot regime gained control of the country. Relations were finally restored in 1991.
The U.S. Embassy in Cambodia is located in Phnom Penh.
Name | Portrait | Appointed | Presentation of credentials | Termination of mission | President | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Donald R. Heath | June 29, 1950 | July 11, 1950 | October 2, 1954 | Harry S. Truman | ||||||||||
Dwight D. Eisenhower | ||||||||||||||
Robert McClintock | August 18, 1954 | October 2, 1954 | October 15, 1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | ||||||||||
Carl W. Strom | October 11, 1956 | December 7, 1956 | March 8, 1959 | |||||||||||
William C. Trimble | February 16, 1959 | April 23, 1959 | June 8, 1962 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | ||||||||||
John F. Kennedy | ||||||||||||||
Philip D. Sprouse | June 28, 1962 | August 20, 1962 | March 3, 1964 | John F. Kennedy | ||||||||||
Lyndon B. Johnson | ||||||||||||||
Randolph A. Kidder | July 9, 1964 | did not present credentials | September 18, 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | ||||||||||
Office vacant from 1964 to 1970. | ||||||||||||||
Emory C. Swank | September 3, 1970 | September 15, 1970 | September 5, 1973 | Richard Nixon | ||||||||||
John Gunther Dean | March 14, 1974 | April 3, 1974 | April 12, 1975 | |||||||||||
Gerald Ford | ||||||||||||||
Office vacant from 1975 to 1994. | ||||||||||||||
Charles H. Twining | May 13, 1994 | May 17, 1994 | November 20, 1995 | Bill Clinton | ||||||||||
Kenneth M. Quinn | December 12, 1995 | March 28, 1996 | July 25, 1999 | |||||||||||
Kent M. Wiedemann | June 7, 1999 | August 31, 1999 | May 16, 2002 | |||||||||||
George W. Bush | ||||||||||||||
Charles A. Ray | November 15, 2002 | January 4, 2003 | July 11, 2005 | |||||||||||
Joseph A. Mussomeli | June 27, 2005 | September 22, 2005 | December 25, 2008 | |||||||||||
Carol A. Rodley | October 24, 2008 | January 20, 2009 | September 29, 2011 | |||||||||||
Barack Obama | ||||||||||||||
William E. Todd | April 2, 2012 | June 8, 2012 | August 14, 2015 | |||||||||||
William A. Heidt | September 14, 2015 | December 2, 2015 | November 28, 2018 | |||||||||||
Donald Trump | ||||||||||||||
W. Patrick Murphy | August 8, 2019 | October 19, 2019 | Incumbent | |||||||||||
Joe Biden | ||||||||||||||
Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, their appointment must be confirmed by the United States Senate; while an ambassador may be appointed during a recess, they can serve only until the end of the next session of Congress, unless subsequently confirmed.
Bilateral relations between the United States and Cambodia, while strained throughout the Cold War, have strengthened considerably in modern times. The U.S. supports efforts in Cambodia to combat terrorism, build democratic institutions, promote human rights, foster economic development, eliminate corruption, achieve the fullest possible accounting for Americans missing from the Indochina Wars-era, and to bring to justice those most responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed under the Khmer Rouge regime.
Donald Read Heath was a member of the United States Foreign Service for more than four decades including service as the Minister to Laos (1950–1954), and Ambassador to Cambodia (1950–1954), Vietnam (1952–1955), Lebanon (1955–1957) and Saudi Arabia (1958–1961). During his tenure as Ambassador to Vietnam, Heath advocated and carried out American policy under Secretary of State John Foster Dulles that helped set the stage for American military involvement.
This is a summary history of diplomatic relations of the United States listed by country. The history of diplomatic relations of the United States began with the appointment of Benjamin Franklin as U.S. Minister to France in 1778, even before the U.S. had won its independence from Great Britain in 1783.
The Embassy of the United States in Phnom Penh is the primary diplomatic mission of the United States to Cambodia. It is located in the capital Phnom Penh. The United States has had a physical diplomatic presence in Cambodia ever since relations were initiated in 1950, which was promoted to an embassy in 1952. A history of strained and suspended relations throughout the Cold War led to the embassy being forced to close at various times, including permanently between 1965 and 1969 and again between 1975 and 1991. Before the latter closure, embassy staff were evacuated in an operation similar to the more famous US evacuation of Saigon. As US-Cambodia relations improved and security threats increased through the 2000s, a new purpose-built complex was constructed. It was opened in 2006, being one of the first American diplomatic missions constructed around the post-9/11 "Standard Embassy Design" model.