U.S. Ambassadors Killed in Line of Duty -- PICTURES

By National Journal Staff

September 12, 2012 | 9:16 a.m.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, who was killed in an attack in Libya on Tuesday, was not the first U.S. ambassador to die in the line of duty. But the list isn't particularly long either.

The State Department Office of the Historian says that five U.S. ambassadors have been killed by terrorists and two have died in plane crashes. We present their pictures below. Not shown are Cleo A. Noel Jr., who died in Sudan in 1973, and John Gordon Mein, who died in Guatemala in 1968.

In this Jan. 16, 1942, photo, new U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Laurence Steinhardt prepares to leave his New York office. Steinhardt, who held multiple diplomatic positions, died in a plane crash in 1950 in Canada. (AP Photo/Carl Nesensohn)

Demonstrators rip the Stars and Stripes from the U.S. Embassy on Aug. 19, 1974, in Nicosia during a demonstration against American policy on Cyprus. American Ambassador to Cyprus Rodger P. Davies was killed by gunfire during the incident. (AP Photo)

Bassem Farkh (left) and Namek Kamal stand inside a courtroom in Beirut on March 13, 1996. The two Lebanese men were accused of kidnapping and assassinating U.S. Ambassador Francis E. Meloy and two companions in 1976. They were acquitted. (AP PHOTO/FILE PHOTO/AHMED AZAKIR)

President Carter shares a moment of sorrow with Mary Ann Dubs, the widow of slain Ambassador to Afghanistan Adolph Dubs at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Feb. 19, 1979, as Dub’s body is returned to the United States for burial. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)

U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz (right) stands with members of U.S. Ambassador Arnold L. Raphel's family as the caskets of Raphel and Brig. Gen. Herbert M. Wassom are brought from the plane at Andrews Air Force Base on Aug. 21, 1988. Raphel, U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, and Wassom, the chief American military attache in Pakistan, were killed in a plane crash in Pakistan with President Mohammad Zia ul-Haqin. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma)

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was killed in an attack in Libya on Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

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