Charlie Rose

Gelles  01/07/2012 09:51 AM Report

One day in the future a public servant and honored official with the wisdom to recommend service on boards of directors or other special duties will be able to ask of his new host or employer, "May I see your plan and system of moral management so that I can be sure you really need me and I can really trust you."

Holbrooke and others served and are paid by very rich organizations. The organizations are sometimes skating on thin ice but do not know it. They never prove to newcomers that the organization is competent or trustworthy. The result can be ugly. Reform of corporate governance law is called for at the moment. Large reform. There remains something "rotten" in Denmark, USA. Law without moral purpose and effect is worse than no law at all.

Gelles  01/07/2012 09:25 AM Report

If Holbrooke were alive, and he brought peace to India and Pakistan, all would not yet be fixed. There remains much to be done to enjoy government of, by and for the people, so that it does not perish while we live.

Gelles  01/07/2012 09:02 AM Report

It seems that some people like Ron Paul, Barney Frank, and our present Congress and Executive Branch, want to lower our investment in our armed forces. They do not understand that until our potential workforce and system are maxed out, more defense spending stimulates the economy to produce more "butter", homes, schools, hospitals and TV entertainment, etc.

Not that we should max out spending on exploration of Mars just to pay for ending poverty. The system would do that. But Mars is a long way off.

Many people, like Mitt Romney, want more soldiers, Marines, warships, planes, guns and hackers to present to potential enemies reason to want peace. These hawks are not foolish. If we had had enough of them in the 1930's, history would have been more like the world's fair of 1939 in New York than it turned out to be. The history of Earth without heavily armed democratic policing nations is not a pretty one. Tyrannies in places where human rights are not observed are a world menace. There may be no German threat today. But small forces with WMD's are a greater danger than ever before. We would be wiser to double the defense budget than to halve it.

If we ever do max out our economy, to the point of creating a near-heaven on earth here and abroad, there will come a time when law and order to protect human rights, and make all property rights human-friendly, will require only token armed forces. But today is too soon to retire America from its role in preventing WW III or even a second 9-11.

Gelles  01/07/2012 08:29 AM Report

Editorial Reviews of the essays in the Unquiet American, Richard Holbrooke -- from Amazon.com

Reviews

Kirkus, October 10, 2011

“An elucidating collection of writing by and about the late fiery, outspoken, undeniably capable United Nations ambassador and longtime diplomat.”

Washington Post, November 13, 2011

“This is an important, timely and imaginative book, a collection of essays from friends, colleagues, journalists and academics who knew Holbrooke well and observed him closely. It is therefore, in one sense, a memorial or a celebration of someone ‘whose presence is sorely missed,’ as co-editors Derek Chollet, author of a book on the Dayton Accords, and Samantha Power, a Pulitzer-winning author and special assistant to Obama, write in the preface. But it is also about someone ‘whose contributions are known in silhouette but — with the lone exception of his role in ending the war in Bosnia — in surprisingly sparse detail’… The book takes readers through a smart and fast-paced history of half a century with Holbrooke — who, like some diplomatic Zelig, was always on the crucial scene.”

Boston Globe, November 19, 2011

“Together, the essays paint a portrait of a trailblazing diplomat and highly charismatic man… The Holbrooke that readers see in these pages is direct, sometimes blunt, but always moving forward…“The Unquiet American’’ is a powerful memorial to this unique, indefatigable, and exceptionally capable diplomat.”

Financial Times

“A must-read for anyone interested in public service and US foreign policy. Holbrooke is best known as the architect of the Dayton accords, which brought a tenuous peace to the Balkans. This book is a reminder of how much more he accomplished in his 45-year diplomatic career.”

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Gelles  01/07/2012 08:10 AM Report

Thanks, Shark, for link to Wikipedia. The article is well worth reading.

I often imagine that money to buy extremely costly solutions to unsolved global contradictions is our most pressing need. But Holbrooke's story is all about the additional need we have for wisdom and luck when real problems are the target of individual and national effort to do good.

I am confident we can supply far more money and military force to solutions than currently and heretofore. But more wisdom, know-how, and luck, are really rare. Richard Holbrooke may have been a tower of strength helping to supply these ingredients to our missions in his lifetime. I am confident "The Unquiet American" reveals his contributions to history for which I am thankful (along with all others he served as an officer in government).

SharkswithfrikingLazers  01/05/2012 01:58 AM Report

A tale of two cities, perhaps?

A member of the Trilateral Commission, a managing director at Lehman Brothers, a member of the board of directors of AIG at the time the firm engaged in wildly speculative credit default insurance schemes that could have brought down the entire financial system OF THE WORLD.

A third wife is a charm(er) though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holbrooke

REMant  01/04/2012 02:13 PM Report

I was happy to hear of Holbrooke's qualms about Afghanistan, which is I suppose the reason for the play on Graham Greene, but I wonder why, if he had really learned something from his RVN experience, he became officially involved there or in the Balkans. Did he really think he was going to end these conflicts diplomatically? Apparently not, from what was said about power to back it up. That's nothing different from what LBJ and Nixon tried to do with B-52s.