United States Ambassador To Afghanistan - Ambassadors and Chiefs of Mission

Ambassadors and Chiefs of Mission

• William H. Hornibrook – Political appointee
  • Title: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: January 22, 1935
  • Presented credentials: May 4, 1935
  • Terminated mission: Left Tehran March 16, 1936

Note: The names of the chargés heading the Afghanistan mission between Hornibrook’s departure in 1936 and the arrival of Dreyfus in 1941 have not been recorded.

• Louis G. Dreyfus, Jr. – Career FSO
  • Title: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: February 16, 1940
  • Presented credentials: May 19, 1941
  • Terminated mission: Superseded by establishment of legation in Kabul, July 25, 1942

Note: Legation Kabul was opened June 6, 1942 with Charles W. Thayer as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.

• Cornelius Van Hemert Engert – Career FSO
  • Title: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: May 2, 1942
  • Presented credentials: July 2, 1942
  • Terminated mission: Left post August 17, 1945

• Ely E. Palmer – Career FSO
  • Title: Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: February 9, 1945
  • Presented credentials: December 6, 1945
  • Terminated mission: Promoted to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary

Note: During Palmer’s tenure as envoy, the Legation was elevated to Embassy status on June 5, 1948, when Palmer presented his credentials to the Afghan government.

• Ely E. Palmer – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: May 6, 1948
  • Presented credentials: June 5, 1948
  • Terminated mission: Left post November 18, 1948

• Louis G. Dreyfus, Jr. – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: April 21, 1949
  • Presented credentials: August 16, 1949
  • Terminated mission: Left post January 19, 1951

• George Robert Merrell – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: April 19, 1951
  • Presented credentials: June 28, 1951
  • Terminated mission: Left post May 3, 1952

• Angus I. Ward – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: June 27, 1952
  • Presented credentials: November 8, 1952
  • Terminated mission: Left post March 3, 1956

• Sheldon T. Mills – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: March 28, 1956
  • Presented credentials: May 6, 1956
  • Terminated mission: Left post February 3, 1959

• Henry A. Byroade – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: January 29, 1959
  • Presented credentials: March 21, 1959
  • Terminated mission: Left post January 19, 1962

• John M. Steeves – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: February 7, 1962
  • Presented credentials: March 20, 1962
  • Terminated mission: Left post July 21, 1966

• Robert G. Neumann – Political appointee
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: November 3, 1966
  • Presented credentials: February 19, 1967
  • Terminated mission: Left post September 10, 1973

• Theodore L. Eliot, Jr. – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: September 20, 1973
  • Presented credentials: November 21, 1973
  • Terminated mission: Left post June 14, 1978

• Adolph Dubs – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: June 27, 1978
  • Presented credentials: July 12, 1978
  • Terminated mission: Assassinated at post February 14, 1979

• J. Bruce Amstutz – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • February 1979–February 1980

• Hawthorne Q. Mills – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • February 1980–January 1982

• Archer K. Blood – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • Nomination rejected by the Afghan government

• Charles F. Dunbar – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • 1982–1983

• Edward Hurwitz – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • 1983–1986

• James Maurice Ealum
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • March 1986–September 1987

• Jon D. Glassman
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • 1987–1989

Note: Peter Tomsen served as Special Envoy to Afghanistan (to the Northern Alliance) 1989–1992.

Note: The U.S. Embassy Kabul was closed in January 1989. The Embassy was reopened January 17, 2002.

• James F. Dobbins – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador (in charge of reestablishing U.S. Embassy)
  • Served: December 2001–January 2002

• Ryan Crocker – Career FSO
  • Title: Chargé d’Affaires a.i.
  • Appointed: January 17, 2002
  • Presented credentials: Unknown
  • Terminated mission: April 3, 2002

• Robert Finn – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: March 21, 2002
  • Presented credentials: April 3, 2002
  • Terminated mission: Left post August 1, 2003

• Zalmay Khalilzad – Political appointee
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: November 17, 2003
  • Presented credentials: November 28, 2003
  • Terminated mission: Left post June 20, 2005

• Ronald E. Neumann – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: June 27, 2005
  • Presented credentials: August 1, 2005
  • Terminated mission: Left post April 10, 2007

• William Braucher Wood – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: March 28, 2007
  • Presented credentials: April 16, 2007
  • Terminated mission: c. March 2009

• Karl Eikenberry – Political appointee
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: April 3, 2009
  • Presented credentials: Unknown
  • Terminated mission: July 25, 2011

• Ryan Crocker – Career FSO
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: July 7, 2009
  • Presented credentials: July 25, 2011
  • Terminated mission: July 13, 2012

• James B. Cunningham
  • Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
  • Appointed: August 2012, Sworn in as ambassador August 12, 2012.
  • Presented credentials: August 13, 2012
  • Terminated mission: Incumbent