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

[SuzerainOfSwat]

As someone with an interest in the history of US Foreign Policy there is a great deal to learn, this biography of Holbrooke looks not just at the career of one of the most accomplished public servants of the latter half of the 20th century, but of the deeper character. The author pulls no punches in describing Holbrooke as ambitious and sometimes cutthroat whose need to be liked was only second to his dream of being Secretary of State. In the final pages I began to tear up as the stress and frustration Holbrooke felt as he was sidelined by the Obama administration and his own personal failures along with the War in Afghanistan  led to his untimely death in late 2010. He began his career in Vietnam and he ended it in Afghanistan he saw the writing on the wall before many did that Afghanistan had the markings of America’s longest war. He was not a perfect man, far from it. He had scores of enemies at all ranks and levels of the government from Tony Lake and Zbigniew Brzezinski to Albright and Denis McDonough. Though one clear thing stood out to me, he was a product of a different time, he was truly the last scion of a departed generation, he was the last vestige of the generation of Harriman, Acheson, and Kennan the “wise men”.