Adolph Dubs

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Adolph "Spike" Dubs (August 4, 1920 - February 14, 1979) was the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 13, 1978 until his death in 1979. He was killed in an exchange of fire after a kidnapping attempt.

Dubs was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from Beloit College in 1942 with a degree in political science. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Later, he completed graduate studies at Georgetown University and foreign service studies at Harvard University and Washington University.

He subsequently entered the United States Foreign Service as a career diplomat, and his postings included Germany, Liberia, Canada, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. He became a noted Soviet expert, and in 1973-74 he served as ranking charge d'affaires at the United States Embassy in Moscow.[1]

In 1978 Dubs was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan following a coup d'etat which put Soviet ally Nur Mohammad Taraki as President. On February 14, 1979, he was kidnapped by four armed Islamists posing as police who were demanding the release of two Islamic militant prisoners, and was held in Room 117 of the Kabul Hotel (now called Kabul Serena Hotel). Afghan security forces and Russian advisers swarmed the hallway and surrounding rooftops, but negotiations stalled. Shortly after 12:30 p.m., an exchange of gunfire started between the terrorists and the Afghan security forces, and the ambassador was killed.[2] After this incident, the U.S. did not have an ambassador to Afghanistan until 2002, following the invasion of the year before, and the embassy was closed in 1989 as security in Kabul deteriorated.[3] His death is considered a "Significant Terrorist Incident" by the State Department.[4] At the time, however, the U.S. formally expressed its disapproval of the assault to Moscow.

Documents released from the Soviet KGB archives by Vasily Mitrokhin in the 1990s showed that the Afghan government clearly authorized the assault despite forceful demands for peaceful negotiations by the U.S., and that the KGB adviser on scene, Sergei Batrukihn, may have recommended the assault, as well as the execution of a kidnapper before U.S. experts could interrogate him.[5] Other questions remain unanswered.

Dubs is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He is memorialized by the American Foreign Service Association with a plaque in the Truman Building in Washington, D.C.[6] and by a memorial in Kabul.[7]

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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by
Theodore L. Eliot, Jr.		 United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
1978–1979		 Succeeded by
J. Bruce Amstutz
(Charge d'affaires)
Robert Finn
(Ambassador in 2002)