Naval War College Review

Volume 74 Number 1 Winter 2021 Article 13

2021

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

Edward Salo

George Packer

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Recommended Citation Salo, Edward and Packer, George (2021) "Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century," Naval War College Review: Vol. 74 : No. 1 , Article 13. Available at: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol74/iss1/13

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Naval War College Review by an authorized editor of U.S. Naval War College Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 154Salo andNAVAL Packer: WAR COLLEGE Our Man: REVIEW Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

the age of sail. Descents on enemy the individual operations would have coasts were common practice in the been useful for readers unfamiliar era. “Cutting out” expeditions designed with the geography of these events. to capture, or in some cases recapture, Perhaps the strongest part of the book vessels in enemy hands also were typical. is the conclusion, which serves to Armstrong adds some unique wrinkles acknowledge that this work is a brief to these regular features of warfare in survey of an understudied aspect of the age of sail. In particular, one chapter America’s naval heritage. While Geoffrey deals not with the projection of power Till described naval irregular warfare as from naval vessels against objectives “postmodern,” Armstrong raises the idea ashore or close inshore, but rather the that ideas perceived as new and innova- reverse. He focuses on methods using tive often are reinventions of ideas from innovative technology against a superior the past. As Harry Truman was reported blockading force to allow a weaker to have said, “The only thing new in this maritime power to deter invaders. world is the history you don’t know.” This chapter strikes a somewhat Professor Armstrong offers a unique dissonant note, but the broader themes view of the early American navy. For resonate in it as well. It also focuses the casual reader, it is an engaging series attention on a significant subtheme— of stories. While histories generally are specifically, the role of equipment filled with the great battles, the actions and technological innovation. covered in this book represent smaller, Armstrong weaves two additional more frequent applications of naval themes throughout his work: the focus power. For specialists, this is a frame- on unique skill sets in addition to work and an important call to study specialized equipment, and the impor- events that do not fit neatly into the tance of upper-level leadership. Many acknowledged schools of naval strategy. senior leaders saw these operations, K. J. DELAMER to use modern terminology, as lesser included operations that were inherent in the normal conduct of naval warfare; such opinions were not well-founded. Further, Armstrong emphasizes Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the intersectional leadership, both at the American Century, by George Packer. New York: senior level, where empowering junior Knopf, 2019. 608 pages. $30. officers was essential, and at the junior- The field of diplomatic history lends officer level, where the mission-critical itself to biographies of diplomats such as decisions were made. These operations Secretaries of State or other high-level served as a nursery for future suc- officials as a means of understanding cessful leaders of the U.S. Navy. policies and the policy makers. Going If there is a weakness in this volume, it is through the shelves of our university the absence of maps. The book provides library, one can chart the history of only a single, global chart with general American twentieth-century foreign locations corresponding to the various policy through the biographies on the chapters. As most of the narrative is tac- shelves. These books, along with works tical, more and detailed maps depicting such as The Best and the Brightest, tell

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the story of the rise of Pax Americana During the 1970s, Holbrooke left in the post–World War II world. government during the Nixon and Ford However, George Packer’s Our Man: administrations, edited Foreign Affairs, Richard Holbrooke and the End of and served in the Carter administration. the American Century offers another During his time in and out of govern- narrative by chronicling the career of ment, Holbrooke’s brash attitude made this important American diplomat. enemies among Democratic members Using this flawed individual, Packer tells of the national security community, the story of America’s flawed foreign including Zbigniew Brzezinski. During policy from Vietnam through Bosnia the Reagan years, Holbrooke tried a to Afghanistan and Iraq, using the career in investment banking, with conflicts as the setting for the narrative some success; yet, with the election of and Holbrooke as the centerpiece. In Clinton, Holbrooke saw his opportunity addition to the chronicling of American for (or destiny of) a top diplomatic foreign policy, this biography of Richard spot in the administration. However, Holbrooke shows the personal side of Anthony Lake’s appointment as national the man, from his affair with Anthony security advisor stalled that hope for Lake’s wife that ruined his friendship Holbrooke. It was not until Holbrooke with Lake and affected his future had toured Bosnia as a private citizen career, to his dating of Diane Sawyer. and began discussing the crisis in the media that he received his ambassador- My first memory of Holbrooke is as the ship to Germany, and then his role architect of the Dayton Accords, but it as negotiator of the peace accords in was not until reading this heavy tome Dayton. The sections of the book that that I discovered that his foreign affairs explore the diplomacy of this period are career started during the early years of excellent and breathe life into an aspect Vietnam, which would influence his of recent history that I feel has been later views on intervention. Packer high- ignored. Packer depicts Holbrooke as the lights Holbrooke’s early years, including right man for the right time; the same his family’s hiding of his Jewish heritage, elements of Holbrooke’s personality his ambition to become a journalist that caused problems with his peers for the New York Times, and his desire allowed him to be successful in working to one day become Secretary of State. with the Serbian and Bosnian leaders. During Vietnam, Holbrooke volunteered for a post in the Mekong Delta, where he The success at Dayton marked the practiced counterinsurgency methods to high point of Holbrooke’s career (and, win the hearts and minds of the people. one could argue, the high point of the However, like so many young bureau- American post–Cold War diplomatic crats and military officers in Vietnam, era as well). As with so many officials, Holbrooke soon realized the problems the changing of administrations pushed with the war, and befriended David Holbrooke out of government and back Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, both into the private sector, until the next journalistic critics of the war. Packer also round of presidential campaigns began depicts the friendship and subsequent looking for foreign policy advisers, first falling-out between Holbrooke and Lake, Kerry in 2004, then Clinton in 2008. another young Foreign Service officer, Packer shows how Holbrooke’s personal- that would affect Holbrooke’s life greatly. ity and ambition turned off President https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/nwc-review/vol74/iss1/13 2 156Salo andNAVAL Packer: WAR COLLEGE Our Man: REVIEW Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

Obama, and his only role in the new her profound admiration for Grant administration was as a special adviser since first encountering his Memoirs for Afghanistan and Pakistan to Hillary as a graduate student, and credits him Clinton, the new Secretary of State—the with having as significant an influence job Holbrooke really wanted. Packer on her life as “Virgil, Plutarch, Li Po, chronicles Holbrooke’s failing health and Montaigne, Shakespeare, Lincoln, his tragic death after having a coronary Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, incident in the Secretary of State’s office. Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, and Joan While we only are starting to put Didion” (p. xx). This is high praise from America’s post–Vietnam War foreign an English professor. She notes that policy into context, Richard Holbrooke Grant’s other admirers are as varied and his story provide one narrative as Theodore Roosevelt and Ta-Nehisi looking at a flawed policy through the Coates. For Samet, annotating this work prism of a flawed, but great, man. clearly was a labor of love, as well as a chance to rehabilitate Grant’s image, EDWARD SALO which, she points out, long has been intentionally tarnished by political opponents, jealous military contempo- raries, and Southern leaders building the myth of the “Lost Cause.” Taking on The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. Grant also means taking on the questions Elizabeth D. Samet. New York: Liveright, 2019. whether he was an alcoholic, drunk 1,068 pages. $45. and disoriented at Shiloh, and a brutal, Arguably, the editor of an anno- unimaginative general who defeated tated work of significant size has one the Confederacy with tactics that boiled of the more difficult jobs in the field down simply to killing more Confederate of literature, especially when the work soldiers than the South could replace. being annotated is well-known, such as While Samet does much that is the Bible, the collected Sherlock Holmes praiseworthy, there are not enough stories, or the complete works of William maps, although the majority used are Shakespeare. The editor needs to provide from the Army’s exceptional West historical background; increase the Point Atlas of the Mexican War and its reader’s understanding of the author’s counterpart the West Point Atlas of the personal and professional motivations Civil War. Other illustrations include and influences; and provide definitions photos of notable figures, scenes of of words, phrases, and concepts that are the war, and contemporary political now forgotten, out of fashion, or greatly cartoons; readers wishing to take a hard changed in meaning. Finding appropriate look at the latter are advised to have a maps, illustrations, and the like also is a powerful magnifying glass close to hand. requirement. Despite these challenges, Dr. Elizabeth Samet, a professor of Samet is not afraid to take a stand on English at the U.S. Military Academy, issues on which the Army and the U.S. has created a welcome addition to the military at large traditionally have field of military history and biography. displayed a studied neutrality. She views Confederate civil-military Samet’s introduction to this volume is leaders as traitors. She holds no truck worth reading in itself. She freely admits with the stainless reputation of the

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