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

• Author: Camp, Donald
• Position: Book review

Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century By George Packer

Richard Holbrooke's story is well known--he was the larger-than-life diplomat and idealist who never achieved the Secretary of State job he craved, in part because of his tragic flaws of egotism and self-promotion. George Packer does not change our image of the man, but he gives it form and substance in a biography that draws on access to Holbrooke's extensive diary, and interviews with all three of his wives as well as 250 of his friends and detractors. This is a comprehensive biography, well-written and compelling, presenting flaws and all.

Packer's journey takes us from Holbrooke's counter-insurgency baptism in Vietnam to his success in the Dayton talks on Bosnia, and finally his efforts on Afghanistan where his diplomatic skills abroad were overshadowed by his confrontational style at home. Packer pays little attention to the off-years; when Republicans were in power in Washington, Holbrooke spent his time making money on Wall Street and writing about foreign affairs. Neither of these meant as much to Holbrooke as the making of foreign policy.

This is also a book about the American foreign policy establishment that is now disappearing from the scene. In some ways it is a biography too of Tony Lake, Holbrooke's best friend in Vietnam and in later years. The men's friendship and professional partnership remained solid until it dissolved during the Clinton administration over bureaucratic struggles (and perhaps elevation to National Security Advisor).

Holbrooke's friends from his first foreign service tour in Vietnam formed the foreign policy and journalism establishment of the past four decades--besides Lake, there was Frank Wisner, John Negroponte, Frank Scotton, Les Gelb, David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Ward Just and others. He intersects with them for good or ill for the rest of his life. But, true to Holbrooke's character, he was also making connections with those who could help launch his career. How many 21-year-old Foreign Service officers can say they lunched with Henry Cabot Lodge, played tennis with Maxwell Taylor and William Westmoreland, went shopping with Robert McNamara and watched a tennis match with Dean Rusk? Once back in Washington, he parlayed the Wisner connection into entry to mom Polly Wisner's Georgetown salon; he was soon lunching with Bobby Kennedy and befriending Averell Harriman. These relationships--and many others--were useful...