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Our Man

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Our Man

Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

Knopf,

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Brilliant and rough-edged, Richard Holbrooke frequently veered between greatness and disaster.

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Over a half-century of American geopolitical adventures, diplomat Richard Holbrooke consistently managed to wriggle his way onto a global stage. From his rookie season in Vietnam to his swan song in Afghanistan, Holbrooke was always striving for a spot in the history books. On occasion, as when he helped broker peace in the former Yugoslavia, Holbrooke lived up to his own visions of grandeur; but most times, American journalist George Packer reports, the man was his own worst enemy. Packer uses his “warts and all” study of Holbrooke to tell the story of America’s shifting role in the world. 

Summary

Holbrooke’s career began in Vietnam in 1963.

Richard Holbrooke was born in New York City, in 1941. His father was a Pole who studied at the Sorbonne and became doctor before moving to the United States. His mother was a German Jew who fled Hitler’s regime. After his father’s death from cancer when he was 15, Holbrooke adopted former assistant secretary of state Dean Rusk as his surrogate father. Holbrooke attended Brown University, where he became editor of a student newspaper. After college, Holbrooke dabbled in journalism, hoping to become either a top editor at The New York Times or the US secretary of state. While Holbrooke soon abandoned newspapers, for much of his career, he cultivated close relationships with journalists.

Vietnam was Holbrooke’s first posting as a young diplomat. He arrived in Saigon in 1963 – a time when many believed the Vietnam War would end quickly. To the US command, the fight in Vietnam was no different from World War II. Whether US troops were engaging the enemy in rice paddies or at the Battle of the Bulge scarcely seemed to matter. The American generals couldn...

About the Author

George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a former staff writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of New York Times bestseller The Unwinding.

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