Richard Holbrooke Dies

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Richard Holbrooke, the man who brokered an end to the Bosnian War, has died. Holbrooke was, most recently, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised him tonight as one of America's fiercest champions and most dedicated public servants. She said he was one of a kind, a true statesman, and that makes his passing all the more painful.

Holbrooke suffered a torn aorta and collapsed on Friday while at the State Department. He was 69 years old. NPR's Jackie Northam has this remembrance of Richard Holbrooke.

JACKIE NORTHAM: Richard Holbrooke was a man who could fill a room not just by his imposing physical presence but also through his personality, his energy and drive. Holbrooke loved the limelight and moving among the world's powerful elite, says Daniel Serwer, who served under Holbrooke during the war in the Balkans.

Mr. DANIEL SERWER (Former Aide to Mr. Holbrooke): He was a guy who liked to control all the levers of power. And it was an extraordinary, virtuoso performance when he did that. A lot of us will remember in his harsher moments, of course, but the fact is that he could be extraordinarily charming as well.

NORTHAM: It was that blend of tough and gentle that helped Holbrooke evolve into a world class negotiator. He first entered government service in 1963. At 22 years old, he was sent to Vietnam as a foreign service officer.

Serwer, now with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says the Vietnam War had an enormous impact on Holbrooke.

Mr. SERWER: And it was a constant theme with him when I was working for him; Vietnam loomed very large. This was formative for him, that the Americans had failed in Vietnam and they had failed partly because they had not used their power appropriately.

NORTHAM: Holbrooke went on to be a member of the U.S. delegation at the Vietnam peace talks in Paris. He also served as ambassador to Germany, assistant secretary of state for Europe and East Asian and Pacific affairs, and as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Here, Holbrooke describes how his father, a refugee from Nazi Germany, took him to see the U.N. complex in New York when he was just a young boy. His father told him the U.N. would be instrumental in preventing future wars.

(Soundbite of archived audio)

Mr. RICHARD HOLBROOKE (Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.): My father did not live to see how his dream for the U.N. dissolved in the face of the harsh realities of the Cold War and the inadequacies of the U.N. system itself. But I never forgot the initial visit and my father's noble, if overly idealistic dream. Despite its many problems and failures, I still believe in the importance, indeed the necessity, of the United Nations.

NORTHAM: While Holbrooke held many diplomatic and foreign policy positions over the years, arguably the height of his diplomatic career was the 1995 Dayton Accords. Holbrooke brought all sides in the Bosnia conflict to the negotiating table and orchestrated the effort to draw a peace agreement to end the bloodshed in the Balkans. Holbrooke spoke shortly after the accords were signed.

Mr. HOLBROOKE: On every page of the many complicated documents and annexes initialed here today lie challenges to both sides to set aside their enmities, their differences, which are still are raw and open wounds. They must work together.

NORTHAM: Steve Clemons, with the New America Foundation, says it took Holbrooke's strong nature to work on the Bosnia negotiations. Clemons, who knew Holbrooke for about 15 years, says he was very ambitious and would bulldoze his way to results.

Mr. STEVE CLEMONS (New America Foundation): I think Richard was a highly talented, skillful diplomat who was used to dealing with tough neighborhoods and tough personalities, monstrous people. And he was tenaciously committed to results. He would focus on the those results and he would do nearly anything to achieve those results.

NORTHAM: Clemons says history will be kind to Holbrooke over the Dayton Accords, but maybe not on his last position as U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Clemons says he thinks the history books there will be mixed. He says Holbrooke made some strides trying to build up civil society in Afghanistan but hit many brick walls and clashed with many of the key players.

Mr. CLEMONS: Of all the things that he might've been given by the Obama administration, they gave him just about the very worst portfolio. I think that had he continued to be with us, I think that he would have found a way to at least force his portfolio into a win.

NORTHAM: Clemons says Holbrooke was trying to be innovative in his role as special representative, and he opened up the possibility of negotiating with the Taliban as a way of ending the conflict in Afghanistan. But he understood the dynamics were much more difficult there, as he indicated last month during an interview with NPR's MORNING EDITION.

Mr. HOLBROOKE: Well, I've thought about that a lot. Each negotiation has its own dynamic and this one is unique. It's not going to end at a place like Dayton, Ohio, where you get all the combatants behind a high barbed wire fence and don't let them out until you have agreement.

NORTHAM: Holbrooke is survived by his wife, Kati Marton, and two sons.

Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.

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