Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and The End of the American Century

[+ WilliamM]

By George Packer

 

From Vietnam through Bosnia to Pakistan & Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke was involved from the State Department. He triumphanted only in Bosnia, but saved thousands of lives by getting Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia to sign the Dayton Accords.

 

Holbrooke was offensive (ask Barack Obama), invaluable, sometimes (in Hillary Clinton's State Department), but never boring.

 

I have mentioned this very interesting book elsewhere here. Mr. Packer had access to almost every RH piece of paper and diary, courtesy of Holbrooke's widow, Kati Martin.

 

(I have visited the Sarajevo airport, the one near the one Olympic site, isurrounded by Serbian military power during the war. Packer tells the airport crisis well, and includes Milosevic - it helps to know the airport, but not vital.)

 

A monumental effort by Packer, who occasionally addresses the reader, and admits it is time to move on from HB, the bore (he asked Obama to call him Richard not Dick because his wife would object) to solving Bosnia.

 

Packer reminds me of Robert Caro. A good comparison.

Edited June 17, 2019 by WilliamM