The United States first opened diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1950 when Cambodia became an associated state within the French Union. US-Cambodia relations have experienced abrupt changes and reversals since 1950. Political relations deteriorated in the early 1960s as a result of US military involvement in South Vietnam and Cambodia breaking diplomatic relations in May 1965. Diplomatic relations were resumed in July 1969, severed again after the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975 and re-established in 1991.

This chapter explores the impact of domestic and international factors on US relations with Cambodia in the period after 1991 when an international settlement brought an end to the decade-long conflict and Vietnamese occupation. Bilateral interstate relations between the US and Cambodia comprise multiple dimensions including, but not limited to, diplomatic political, economic, defence-security and humanitarian-development assistance. This chapter illustrates that the pace and scope of the bilateral relationship varied across these dimensions over time. Progress or setbacks in one area spilled over and affected relations in other areas.

BACKGROUND

Between 1975 and 1991 the United States withheld diplomatic recognition from both Democratic Kampuchea (under the Khmer Rouge) and the People's Republic of Kampuchea/State of Cambodia (a regime set up during the Vietnamese occupation). The US reopened its diplomatic mission in Phnom Penh in November 1991 following the comprehensive international political settlement of the Cambodian conflict in Paris a month earlier. The US ambassador was accredited to the Supreme National Council, a grouping of all the warring Cambodian parties under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). Following UN-supervised elections in May 1993 and the subsequent formation of the Royal Government of Cambodia, the United States immediately extended diplomatic relations and the US Mission was upgraded to an Embassy.

As a result of domestic political turmoil in 1997, the US suspended aid to the central government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, terminated all military assistance and opposed loans by international financial institutions with the exception of funds for basic humanitarian needs. US political relations with the Hun Sen regime deteriorated sharply during this period. A decade elapsed before US sanctions were lifted. During this period, the pace and scope of rapprochement varied across political-diplomatic, economic, military and aid dimensions.