News & Politics The Mysterious Kidnapping of an American Ambassador Still Haunts the State Department Spike Dubs took over the US Embassy in Kabul in 1978. A charismatic Kremlinologist, the ambassador was optimistic that he could maintain America’s influence in a country that bordered the Soviet Union. Then one morning only seven months into Dubs’s tenure, an unidentified band of kidnappers carjacked him and took him hostage at a popular hotel in the center of town. State Department, Ambassador, Spike Dubs, US Embassy | Jun 4, 2017
