Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, RIP

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the United States government’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, died tonight after a brief, acute illness. He was 69 years old.

Ambassador Holbrooke led a very full life. After college, he joined the Foreign Service, learned Vietnamese, and reported for duty in the Mekong Delta during the war with an assignment with the CORDS pacification program. He later worked at the embassy in Saigon for Ambassador Maxwell Taylor (John Negroponte was his roommate), was a junior representative at the Paris peace talks, and wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers. He managed the Peace Corps mission in Morocco. He then spent five years as editor of Foreign Policy Magazine, where, nearly forty years later, I am proud to appear once a week. Just two weeks ago, he spoke at a Foreign Policy event and said that his years as editor were among the most important of his career.

Holbrooke may have been the most qualified man never to become Secretary of State. During the Carter administration, he was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he oversaw the U.S. government’s diplomatic recognition of mainland China. During the Clinton administration, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany in the wake of the collapse of the Iron Curtain. He then became the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, where he led the negotiations ending the Bosnian wars. After a break from government service, Holbrooke returned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where he focused on UN reform and Africa issues.

Holbrooke died suddenly at the too-young age of 69 with his task in Afghanistan and Pakistan incomplete. Although Holbrooke left the stage with his last assignment still in the balance, his rich experience in public service, starting with his first assignment in Vietnam, shows following generations how they too can lead lives that make a difference. Those not cut out for military service, but who want to do something meaningful with their lives, can look to Holbrooke to see what a young person in the Foreign Service, the Peace Corps, or elsewhere in public service, can accomplish at an early age. Holbrooke’s example of a youth well-spent may be his greatest legacy.