[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 22025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING RICHARD HOLBROOKE

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, it is with deep sadness that I speak in 
memory of a dear friend, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who died Monday 
at the far-too-early age of 69.
  I first met Dick years and years ago, long before he held his most 
recent post of Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. We had so 
many conversations, meetings, and trips over the years, as his career 
progressed, particularly during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
  Dick's skillful diplomacy that ended the siege of Sarajevo and 
finally ended that war is legendary. Nobody else could have done what 
he did. He was motivated above all by compassion, intent on stopping 
the suffering of innocent people who were being terrorized for no other 
reason than their ethnicity.
  He combined the force of his convictions with the force of his 
personality, along with his boundless energy, to do what others had 
been unable to do. Ambassador Holbrooke did not accept no for an 
answer.
  I remember meeting Dick in 1999. We had planned a meeting. I was in 
Macedonia, and he was in Kosovo. It was a very foggy, rainy day. We 
could not travel by helicopter, as we planned, so we met on a slippery, 
narrow road, with a several-hundred-foot cliff on one side. We sat 
together on the hood of a car and he described what he had observed. He 
told me what he believed needed to be done. It was fascinating because 
Dick put everything into perspective as only he could.
  It is fair to say we took advantage of that unlikely meeting to 
reminisce and laugh about other times and places, some of which were 
just as unlikely. This was one of those rare conversations that makes 
an unforgettable impression on you--most of all because it was Dick 
Holbrooke. He was so passionate, so animated, yet with a determination 
and a sense of humor that made the challenge of solving the thorniest 
of problems hard to resist.
  It was in his latest position that I heard most often from Dick, when 
he would call to keep me apprised of his efforts to try to get the most 
out of our aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was not an easy task. He 
called me on weekends at my home in Vermont, and we would talk about 
it.
  Dick led the reshaping of U.S. policy in South Asia during a 
difficult transition period. He charged headfirst into the maelstrom of 
Afghanistan and Pakistan 7 years after the conflict began, raising key 
and sometimes unpopular questions about our efforts there. Not 
infrequently, the press would report about his combative style and 
another heated exchange with some foreign leader. But in Dick's final 
hours, his wife Kati Marton received calls of sympathy from Afghan 
President Karzai and Pakistani President Zardari, which says a lot 
about Dick.
  My thoughts and prayers are with Kati and Dick's sons and 
stepchildren and with Dick's loyal staff at the Department of State 
during this sad time. I and others here have lost a dear friend. The 
American people have lost one of the greatest diplomats of our time, an 
extraordinary man who loved this country and devoted his life to it as 
much as any person could.
  I yield the floor.

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