Richard Holbrooke

Richard Holbrooke died today. He was 69. He had spent almost fifty years in the service of the United States as a diplomat and special representative.
Holbrooke will certainly be remembered most for his brokering of the treaty that ended the war in the ex-Yougoslavia. It may seem a long time ago now, but in 1995, Holbrooke was the person who stood between peace and the warring factions which were taking the Balkans into a full scale war that would have divided and perhaps brought on a third major conflict in Europe in the last century.
President Clinton sent in Holbrooke when it became apparent that the European diplomatic machine was unable to do much more than sit in meetings discussing what to do and how to do it. Richard Holbrooke was a tough and unrelenting negotiator and he succeeded. When someone later asked why he had established a personal relationship with Milosovic, and if it was a good message to send to the world, he answered that he would talk to anyone in order to get the job done.
His death puts a hole in US diplomacy that will be hard to fill. His toughminded focus on peace was a force to be reckoned with but it is only now that the world's leaders are saying so.
And, there are others, like him, who labor all their careers to try to make this a better world. They are the unsung heroes who fade into the background when their job is done so that government ministers and Presidents can initial their work and take the bows.
As you remember Richard Holbrooke today, have a thought for the others as well. We need all of their efforts just to keep the goal of world peace alive. He and they are worth more than all the stolen cables ever to be published.