US diplomat Richard Holbrooke dies

 
 

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via The Guardian World News by Ed Pilkington on 12/13/10

A lifelong diplomat who helped bring peace to the Balkans as the chief architect of the Dayton accords

Richard Holbrooke, a lifelong diplomat who helped bring peace to the Balkans as the chief architect of the Dayton accords and who was attempting to wrestle with the ongoing sore of Afghanistan, has died in Washington aged 69.

Holbrooke's death is a significant blow to the Obama administration just days before it is scheduled to announce the latest review of US policy in Afghanistan. He was a central member of the team seeking to steer the US on a course of gradually reduced involvement in the country and transfer of responsibility towards the Afghan military forces.

He had been very critical of president George Bush's Afghanistan policy, and his position in the Obama administration was considered critical as the new president sought to crack down on al-Qaida and a resurgent Taliban in the region.

He died in the job, as Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He fell ill last Friday, collapsing soon after having had a meeting with the secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Surgeons spent more than 20 hours trying to repair a torn aorta, but were unsuccessful.

Shortly before he died Obama had praised him as "a towering figure in American foreign policy. He is simply one of the giants of American foreign policy."

Earlier yesterday Clinton had said "he has given nearly 50 years of his life to serving the United States".

Holbrooke entered the foreign service directly on graduating from Brown university in 1962.

He cut his teeth as a diplomat on the thorniest foreign policy issue of the day: Vietnam, serving six years in the country and being appointed by Lyndon Johnson to his core team of advisers on the escalating war, despite his age at 24.

He went on to write part of the Pentagon Papers, the secret report on the US conduct of the Vietnam war leaked to the New York Times in 1971.

Vietnam gave Holbrooke a deep understanding of and connection with Asia. But he was later deployed to Europe when Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to Berlin. He was seminal in carving out the US relationship with a recently reunited Germany.

His greatest triumph came two years later when he led the negotiation team attempting to bring peace to the Balkans following more than three years of bloody war in Bosnia.

The agreement was reached in Dayton, Ohio, in November 1995, with Holbrooke as its main architect.

Holbrooke put his tough negotiating style to good use in the lead up to Dayton. His forceful presence earned him the nicknames "the Bulldozer" and "Raging Bull", and the distinction of being "Washington's favourite last-ditch diplomat".

He served as Clinton's ambassador to the UN, and at the start of Obama's stint in the White House was called upon for another typically tough assignment – attempting to hold together the disintegrating political situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Once called "America's toughest diplomatic tactician" by Time magazine, his death leaves Obama with a substantial hole to fill in his administration.


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