A Cambodian American is an American who is born, raised, or from Cambodia usually of Khmer descent but also including Chinese Cambodians, Vietnamese Cambodians, Cham people and other ethnicities of Cambodia. The term may also refer to Americans who have ancestors that are born, raised or from Cambodia.

Prior to 1975, most of the few Cambodians in the United States were children of upper income families or having government funded scholarships sent abroad to attend school. After the fall of Phnom Penh to the communist Khmer Rouge in 1975, a few Cambodians managed to escape, but not until the Khmer Rouge was overthrown in 1979 did large waves of Cambodians began immigrating to the United States as refugees. In order to encourage rapid assimilation into American culture and to spread the economic impact, the U.S. government settled the 150,000 refugees in various towns and cities throughout the country. However, once established enough to be able to communicate and travel, many Cambodians began migrating within the U.S. to certain localities where the climate was more like home, where they knew friends and relatives had been sent, or where there were rumored to be familiar jobs or higher government benefits. Consequently, large communities of Cambodians took root in cities such as Long Beach, Fresno and Stockton in California, Providence, Rhode Island, as well as Lynn and Lowell in Massachusetts, and in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle and Portland.

Hor Namhong (or Hor Nam Hong) (born November 15, 1935) is a Cambodian diplomat who has served in the government of Cambodia as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 1998. He previously held the same post from 1990 until 1993. He is a member of the Cambodian People's Party.

Born at Phnom Penh, Hor Namhong was educated at the Ecole Royale d'Administration (diplomatic section) in Cambodia. He also holds a Master of Law degree from the Faculty of Law in Paris and a diploma from the European Institute of High International Studies in France.

Between 1967 and 1973 Hor Namhong served at the embassy of Cambodia in Paris, which became the mission of the exiled Royal Government of National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK) in 1970. Between 1973 and 1975 he represented Cambodia as ambassador to Cuba.

Between 1975 and 1979 Hor Namhong was a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge at Boeng Trabek. There have been accusations that he collaborated with his captors but Hor Namhong denies the accusations and was successful in a defamation suit against his accusers. On April 27th, 2011, Hor Namhong lost a defamation suit in the French Supreme Court in which he claimed he was innocent of atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 through 1979.