40 Years On, Mystery Still Surrounds Shooting Death Of U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan

[TomSea]

40 Years On, Mystery Still Surrounds Shooting Death Of U.S. Ambassador To Afghanistan

U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (left) and U.S. President Jimmy Carter comfort Mary Anne Dubs, the widow of slain Ambassador Adolph Dubs, as Dubs' body is returned to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., on February 18, 1979.

On February 14, 1979, Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped at gunpoint, held hostage in a Kabul hotel, and killed in a botched rescue attempt.

Forty years on, the precise circumstances surrounding the death of the 58-year-old diplomat remain shrouded in mystery. Several questions remain unanswered, including who was behind Dubs' kidnapping, who fired the fatal shots, and whether the Soviet Union was involved.

The death of Dubs, a former charge d'affaires in Moscow, came at a critical time during the Cold War -- it was a year after communists seized power in Kabul and months before the Soviet Union sent in troops to prop up the Marxist government.

Article at: https://www.rferl.org/a/years-on-mystery-still-surrounds-shooting-death-of-u-s-ambassador-to-afghanistan/29770272.html