Adolph Dubs

Adolph Dubs (August 4, 1920 – February 14, 1979), also known as Spike Dubs, was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan from May 13, 1978, until his death in 1979.

He was killed during a rescue attempt after his kidnapping.

Dubs was born in Chicago, Illinois.

He was previously married for over 30 years to Jane Wilson Dubs (1922–1993), his college girlfriend from Beloit College, whom he married in 1945 and divorced in 1976.

A 1938 graduate of Carl Schurz High School, he graduated from Beloit College in 1942 with a degree in political science.

While at Beloit, classmates, who said they did not want to refer to Dubs by the first name of an enemy dictator, gave him the nickname "Spike", which stuck for the rest of his life.

Dubs served in the United States Navy during World War II.

Later, he completed graduate studies at Georgetown University and foreign service studies at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.

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 had one daughter, Lindsay Dubs McLaughlin (1953–), who lives in West Virginia.

He became a noted Soviet expert, and in 1973–74 he served as ranking charge d'affaires at the United States Embassy in Moscow.

At the time of his death he was married to his second wife Mary Anne Dubs, a Washington-based journalist.

In 1978, Dubs was appointed United States Ambassador to Afghanistan following the Saur Revolution, a coup d'état which brought the Soviet-aligned Khalq faction to power.

He was being driven from his residence to the U.S. embassy shortly before 9 a.m. on February 14, 1979, on the same day that Iranian militants attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and just months before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

He was approaching the U.S. Cultural Center when four men stopped his armored black Chevrolet limousine.

Some accounts say that the men were wearing Afghan police uniforms, while others state that only one of the four was wearing a police uniform.

The men gestured to the car to open its windows, which were bulletproof, and the ambassador's driver complied.

The militants then threatened the driver with a pistol, forcing him to take Dubs to the Kabul Hotel in downtown Kabul.

The abduction occurred within sight of Afghan police.

Dubs was held in Room 117 on the first floor of the hotel, and the driver was sent to the U.S. embassy to tell the U.S. of the kidnapping.

At the hotel, the abductors allegedly demanded that the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) release "one or more religious or political prisoners."

"No demands were made of the American government, nor did the DRA ever give a complete or consistent account of the kidnappers' desires."

Some accounts state that the militants demanded the exchange of Tahir Badakhshi, Badruddin Bahes (who may have already been dead), and Wasef Bakhtari.

The U.S. urged waiting in order not to endanger Dubs' life, but the Afghan police disregarded these pleas to negotiate and attacked on the advice of Soviet officers.

The weapons and flak jackets used by the Afghans were provided by the Soviets, and the hotel lobby had multiple Soviet officials, including the KGB security chief, the lead Soviet advisor to the Afghan police, and the second secretary at the Soviet embassy.

At the end of the morning, a shot was heard.

Afghan police then stormed Room 117 with heavy automatic gunfire.

After a short, intense firefight, estimated at 40 seconds to one minute, Dubs was found dead, killed by shots to the head.

Two abductors died in the firefight, as well.

An autopsy showed that he had been shot in the head from a distance of six inches.

The other two abductors were captured alive but were shot shortly afterwards; their bodies were shown to U.S. officials before dusk.

The true identity and aims of the militants are uncertain, and the crime "has never been satisfactorily explained" although U.S., Afghan, and Soviet officials "were all but eyewitnesses" to it.

The circumstances have been described as "mysterious" and "still clouded."

Several factors obscured the events, including the killing of the surviving captors, lack of forensic analysis of the scene, lack of access for U.S. investigators, and planting of evidence.

Soviet or Afghan conspiracy was not proven.

Some attribute responsibility for the kidnapping and murder to the leftist anti-Pashtun group Settam-e-Melli, but others consider that to be dubious, pointing to a former Kabul policeman who has claimed that at least one kidnapper was part of the Parcham faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.

Disinformation that was spread in the Soviet and Afghan press after the murder blamed the incident on the CIA, Hafizullah Amin, or both.

Anthony Arnold suggested that "it was obvious that only one power… would benefit from the murder—the Soviet Union," as the death of the ambassador "irrevocably poisoned" the U.S.–Afghan relationship, "leaving the USSR with a monopoly of great power influence over" the Nur Muhammad Taraki government.

Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski stated that Dubs' death "was a tragic event which involved either Soviet ineptitude or collusion", while the Afghan handling of the incident was "inept."

The Taraki government refused U.S. requests for an investigation into the death.