Richard Holbrooke Peacemaker
We honor the passing on December 13, 2010 of the senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke. The late Richard Holbrooke served nearly 50 years in the United States Foreign Service. He graduated at age 21 from Brown University in 1962 and became involved with the Vietnam war working for the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. He played a significant role in the Paris Peace Talks to end the Vietnam War while still very young. He was Ambassador to Germany and other countries. His biggest claim to fame is brokering peace in Bosnia with the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995 while working for the Bill Clinton administration. Twice he was Assistant Secretary of State. At age 35, after Jimmy Carter was elected President he was made Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and some years later he was Secretary of State for Europe in the Clinton Administration. He was also US Ambassador to the United Nations. Richard Holbrooke was trying to negotiate a peace in Afghanistan as President Obama’s Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, when he died at age 69 following a suddenly torn aorta that occurred during a meeting over Afghanistan at the State Department. He required major surgery from which he could not recover. On January 14, 2011 there was an inspiring memorial service for Richard Holbrooke held which included speeches by Former President Bill Clinton followed by his wife Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and it became clear that Richard Holbrooke has had a huge impact leaving a legacy unmatched by anyone in the recent history of diplomacy.
Richard Holbrooke was a great negotiator and a peace maker and the leading American diplomat of the past half century. Let Richard Holbrooke set an example of public service and the urgency of peace, for us and our children.