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. The U.S. Embassy in Cambodia is located in Phnom Penh.