St. Valentines Day Massacre

On this day in 1979, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs, was brutally murdered by extremists opposing the regime that had recently come to power via a coup sponsored by the Soviet Union.  From Wikipedia:

In 1978 Dubs was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan following a coup d'etat which brought the Soviet-aligned Khalq faction to power. On the morning of February 14, 1979, he was kidnapped by four armed militants posing as police. Dubs was held in Room 117 of the Kabul 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.

Documents released from KGB archives 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.

Dubs was not replaced by the US government and the embassy was closed in 1989.  The US did not post another ambassador to Afghanistan until 2002.


This was also the day of the first Iranian assault on the US Embassy in Tehran.  From PBS:

The attack occurred at 10:15 a.m. on February 14, 1979. It was carried out by hundreds of supporters of the communist OPFG who climbed over the walls of the large compound on Takht-e Jamshid Street. Here is how Nicholas Cumming-Bruce of the Guardian reported on the incident:

As (the attackers) dropped into the compound they opened up with everything from G3 rifles to machine guns, spraying the main Embassy building and other offices with bullet. The Embassy's U.S. Marines returned the fire with bird-shot to give official time to destroy secret documents and coding equipments, but were then ordered by Ambassador William H. Sullivan to unload and discard their weapons.

The Embassy staff, about 100 to 150 (down from more than 300 before the Revolution), were taken to the communication room on the first floor, while marines filled the ground floor with teargas. But, this had only a temporary delaying effect. Gunmen eventually broke into the Embassy, forcing many of the staff at gunpoint to lie on the floor. Others ransacked the East Wing, broke up communication equipment and smashed the main switchboard.

 One Iranian employee of the Embassy was killed, and U.S. Marine and three other Americans were wounded. ... (After) an hour armed men led by the deputy prime minister of the provisional revolutionary government, Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, arrived at the embassy and convinced the attackers to leave the Embassy.

U.S. State Department spokesman Hodding Carter, III, thanked the provisional government for its efficiency and speed that ended the embassy seizure. Through Iran's embassy in Washington, the Bazargan government relayed a message to the Carter administration, expressing deep regrets for the incident, and promised complete security for the Embassy and its staff.