Longtime diplomat Holbrooke dies at 69

December 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

Richard C. Holbrooke, the hard-charging diplomat who brokered peace in the Balkans and then took on an even tougher task as the Obama administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday night at age 69.

Holbrooke, whose career spanned nearly five decades, was a forceful presence both in U.S. foreign policy whether in or out of office. He negotiated the 1995 Dayton Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia; served as ambassador to the United Nations and to Germany; and mentored a younger generation of American diplomats.

His death, from heart problems that sent him to the hospital Friday, is a heavy blow to President Barack Obama’s foreign policy team, and particularly the president’s hopes of stabilizing Afghanistan, where nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are deployed.

Later this week, Obama is expected to announce the results of a review of U.S. policy in Afghanistan one year after he ordered 30,000 additional troops to the country and a change in American strategy.

“He was one of a kind — a true statesman — and that makes his passing all the more painful,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a prepared statement Monday evening. She praised Holbrooke’s “distinctive brilliance and unmatched determination.”

Holbrooke was known to legions of foreign diplomats, world leaders and journalists as a forceful figure on the world stage, who did not brook fools lightly, had a supreme confidence in his own abilities, and had a reputation as a fearsome negotiator.