Richard Holbrooke, RIP
This is sad news. Holbrooke was one of the few true grownups in the Obama foreign policy apparatus. He was a smart, dogged, and deeply realistic diplomat. From his FoxNews obituary:
Reflecting on his role as Obama's special envoy, Holbrooke wrote in The Washington Post in March 2008 that "the conflict in Afghanistan will be far more costly and much, much longer than Americans realize. This war, already in its seventh year, will eventually become the longest in American history, surpassing even Vietnam."
Holbrooke's relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai was strained after their heated meeting in 2009 over the fraud-tainted Afghan presidential election. Karzai brushed it off, saying he had "no problem at all with Mr. Holbrooke." But the U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan, not Holbrooke, were the ones who ended up developed the closest relations with the mercurial Afghan leader.
With his decades of service and long list of accomplishments in U.S. diplomacy, Holbrooke missed out on a tour as America's top diplomat, a job he was known to covet. As U.N. ambassador, he was a member of the Clinton Cabinet but his sometimes brash and combative style contrasted with that of then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
At a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, Holbrooke bristled when was asked by a reporter if his views on the future of Kosovo -- that it would eventually become independent -- matched those of his boss.
"You mean, Madeleine?" he replied with a derisive snort, referring to Albright, who with others in the administration were publicly neutral on the question.
Holbrooke rejected direct comparisons between Afghanistan and Vietnam, but acknowledged similarities and repeatedly pressed the administration to do more to win the hearts and minds of both the Afghan and Pakistani people.
At the State Department ceremony in January 2009 when he was introduced as the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Holbrooke spotted an old friend in the audience, John Negroponte, his one-time roommate in Saigon (the former South Vietnamese capital now called Ho Chi Minh City) who later was the first director of national intelligence and a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
"We remember those days well, and I hope we will produce a better outcome this time," Holbrooke said.
Brilliant, abrasive, a real street fighter. As journalist Heidi Moore put it in her recent Tweet:
Holbrooke's death will give the diplomatic community a common cause, as they all struggle not to speak ill of the dead.
American diplomacy is a tough room.
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Aug '10
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
That was a gracious eulogy , at least in a conservative's eye. His friendship with Negroponte is the high point of the piece, as well as redemptive, considering who he had to share power with.
Now I have to ask why Richardson headed to Energy and Holbrooke had to fill in for him, or was Richardson just a seat keeper ?
Working for Albright and Hillary........whew ! He must have had the goods to get his way.
Well, RIP Ambassador.
Edited on Dec 13, 2010 at 7:03pmMay '10
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
To tell the truth, I lost respect for Holbrooke when he said excessively nice things about Pamela Harriman, a woman who finagled her way into the bedroom of every rich man east of the Pedernales, and then into the US Embassy in Paris (at an age, unfortunately, when her only talent was probably no longer of much value).
Edited on Dec 13, 2010 at 8:48pmJul '10
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
Rob Long:
Yes, it will. Though I'd bet non-wiki leaks are included in plenty of stories.
Rob Long:
American diplomacy is a tough room. ·
Yes it is. R.I.P. Ambassador.
Nov '10
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
Ugh, why couldn't it have been Eikenberry? Holbrooke was actually a reasonably good person. (As good as State Department employees can be, anyway.) This may turn out to be a big, big setback for the war in Afghanistan.
Jun '10
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
Since you have to wait a few days to speak ill of the dead, I'll just stop now.
Re: Richard Holbrooke, RIP
Holbrooke has an untrumpeted legacy. After serving as American ambassador to Germany, he played a crucial role in founding the American Academy in Berlin -- which plays an important role in public diplomacy. When I was a fellow there, back in the Spring of 2006, Holbrooke was chairman of the board. I remember him well. He had an exceedingly high opinion of himself, and he was not shy about letting everyone in the room know it. To some degree, of course, it was justified. Being nominally subordinate to a nonentity like Madeleine Albright . . . that must have been hard to stomach.