Sheraton Kampala Hotel Idi Amin in 1971, the hotel was renamed the Kampala International Hotel. Following the overthrow of Amin by Tanzanian forces, who made the hotel their headquarters, and the Uganda National Liberation Army in 1979, and the return to power of Obote in 1980, the hotel reverted to the Apolo Hotel name. There were other regime changes in the country in 1985 and 1986. The National Resistance Movement, which ascended into power in 1986, liberalized the economy and Middle Eastern investors won the rights to lease the hotel from the government of Uganda and manage it for the next 25 years,
Hafizullah Amin Hekmatyar, one of the leading anti-communists in Afghanistan. His general untrustworthiness and his unpopularity amongst Afghans made it more difficult for Amin to find new "foreign patrons". Amin's involvement in the death of Adolph Dubs, the American Ambassador to Afghanistan, strained his relations with the United States. He tried to improve relations by reestablishing contact, met with three different American chargé d'affaires, and was interviewed by an American correspondent. But this did not improve Afghanistan's standing in the eyes of the United States Government. After the third meeting with Amin, J. Bruce Amstutz, the American Ambassador to Afghanistan from 1979