In 1973, when Adam was a first secretary in Chile, he gained some notoriety when he and his colleague Marc Dolgin offered refuge in their homes to about fourteen Chileans fleeing the 11 September coup d'état. Canada's response to the coup was initially ambivalent, and some credit the actions of Adam and Dolgin for the Canadian government's decision to permit Chilean refugees to settle in Canada. Adam reports that he is quoted (anonymously) in the 1982 film "Missing", a dramatization of the story of American journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the coup.