'You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan': The last words of U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke before failed heart surgery



Tributes flood in for veteran diplomat, 69, who helped bring peace to Bosnia



President Obama praises the man he hoped would help get American troops out of Afghanistan



'He was truly one of the best and the brightest of his generation,' proclaims Foreign Secretary William Hague



'Towering figure': Veteran U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke has died aged 69

Richard Holbrooke, the veteran U.S. diplomat who helped bring peace to Bosnia and served as President Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has died at the age of 69.

Mr Holbrooke, whose forceful style earned him nicknames such as 'The Bulldozer' or 'Raging Bull', was admitted to a Washington hospital after he became ill during a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday.

The former U.S. ambassador to the UN had surgery on Saturday to repair a torn aorta, the body's principal artery.

His last words to the surgeon and his family were: 'You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan.'

President Obama last night paid tribute to a 'true giant of American foreign policy... a truly unique figure who will be remembered for his tireless diplomacy, love of country, and pursuit of peace'.

Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke for David Cameron's administration when he described Mr Holbrooke as 'truly one of the best and the brightest of his generation' who served the US 'with distinction and integrity'.

Mr Holbrooke deserves credit for much of the U.S. progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Obama added.

He was appointed special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan early in his term, hoping that his experience in Bosnia would help him turn the faltering nine-year-old war in Afghanistan around.

The loss Mr Holbrooke will be a blow to Mr Obama's efforts to demonstrate swift progress in Afghanistan next year.



Washington hopes to start putting Afghan forces in the lead and start bringing U.S. troops home in July 2011.

Mrs Clinton called the politician one of America's 'fiercest champions and most dedicated public servants'.

'Richard Holbrooke served the country he loved for nearly half a century, representing the United States in far-flung war zones and high-level peace talks, always with distinctive brilliance and unmatched determination,' she said.



Her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said last night: 'Richard Holbrooke saved lives, secured peace and restored hope for countless people around the world.'

When he served as Special U.S. envoy for the Balkans Richard Holbrooke sits with an unidentified Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) soldier at their HQ in Junik in June 1998

The then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and U.S. peace envoy Richard Holbrooke (R) shake hands at the beginning of their meeting in Belgrade in this September 15, 1996

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari said: 'Pakistan has lost a friend. He was an accomplished and experienced diplomat who quickly gained the confidence of his interlocutors.



'He was a key player in international diplomacy to bring peace to Bosnia and in confronting militancy in our part of the world.'

'His services will be long remembered. The best tribute to him is to reiterate our resolve to root out extremism and usher in peace.'



Vice president Joe Biden said: 'Today, I lost a great friend and America lost one of its greatest warriors for peace. ... He was a tireless negotiator, a relentless advocate for American interests, and the most talented diplomat we've had in a generation.'



Tony Blair said: 'He was a remarkable man, a remarkable public servant and someone who contributed enormously to the cause of a more peaceful and just world. He will be deeply mourned by many people in many different nations.'



Mr Holbrooke's sizable ego, tenacity and willingness to push hard for diplomatic results won him both admiration and animosity.

President Obama shaking hands with Mr Holbrooke as he was unveiled as Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, at the US State Department in Washington in 2009

When he served as US Representative to the United Nations, Mr Holbrooke confers with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 1996

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said: 'If Richard calls you and asks you for something, just say yes. If you say no, you'll eventually get to yes, but the journey will be very painful.'

He learned to become extremely informed about whatever country he was in, push for an exit strategy and look for ways to get those who live in a country to take increasing responsibility for their own security.

The bearish Holbrooke said he has no qualms about 'negotiating with people who do immoral things'.

'If you can prevent the deaths of people still alive, you're not doing a disservice to those already killed by trying to do so,' he said in 1999.

A frequent visitor to both Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Holbrooke had personal relationships with the region's leaders.

At home he has sought to allay concerns in the U.S. Congress over the course of the war.

His sudden death comes just before the White House is expected to roll out an assessment of the revised strategy for the two troubled countries.

Holbrooke listens to Maj. Gen. Richard P. Mills, Commanding General of the First Marine Expeditionary Force in Helmand, during Hoolbrooke's visit to Marjah, south of Kabul last year

The review is expected to conclude that despite entrenched corruption and weak governance, U.S. and Nato forces are making progress on security in parts of Afghanistan. It will not bring any major changes to strategy.

Mr Holbrooke served under every Democratic president from John F. Kennedy to Mr Obama in a lengthy career that began with a foreign service posting in Vietnam in 1962 after graduating from Brown University, and included time as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam.

Born in New York City on April 24, 1941, Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke had an interest in public service from his early years.

He was a young provincial representative for the U.S. Agency for International Development in South Vietnam and then an aide to two U.S. ambassadors in Saigon.



At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that was completed in 1967.

The study, leaked in 1971 by a former Defence Department aide, had many damaging revelations, including a memo that stated the reason for fighting in Vietnam was based far more on preserving U.S. prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan conferring with the US Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke before the debate and vote on a resolution to impose a new system of arms inspection for Iraq in 1995

After stints in and out of government - including as Peace Corps director in Morocco, editing positions at Foreign Policy and Newsweek magazines and adviser to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign - Mr Holbrooke became assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs from 1977 to 1981.

He then shifted back to private life - and the financial world, at Lehman Brothers.



A lifelong Democrat, he returned to public service when Bill Clinton took the White House in 1993. Holbrooke was U.S. ambassador to Germany from 1993 to 1994 and then assistant secretary of state for European affairs.

One of his signature achievements was brokering the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s. He detailed the experience of negotiating the deal at an Air Force base near the Ohio city in his 1998 memoir To End A War.

James Dobbins, former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan who worked closely with Holbrooke early in their careers, called him a brilliant diplomat and said his success at the Dayton peace talks 'was the turning point in the Clinton administration's foreign policy'.

Mr Holbrooke's efforts surrounding Dayton later would lead to controversy when wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic told a war crimes tribunal in 2009 that Holbrooke had promised him immunity in return for leaving politics. Mr Holbrooke denied the claim.

He left the State Department in 1996 to take a Wall Street job with Credit Suisse First Boston but was never far from the international diplomatic fray, serving as a private citizen as a special envoy to Cyprus and then the Balkans.

In 1998, he negotiated an agreement with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw Yugoslav forces from Kosovo where they were accused of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign and allow international observers into the province.

'I make no apologies for negotiating with Milosevic and even worse people, provided one doesn't lose one's point of view,' he said later.

When the deal fell apart, Mr Holbrooke went to Belgrade to deliver the final ultimatum to Mr Milosevic to leave Kosovo or face NATO airstrikes, which ultimately rained down on the capital.

'This isn't fun,' he said of his Kosovo experience. 'This isn't bridge or tennis. This is tough slogging.'

Mr Holbrooke returned to public service in 1999, when he became U.S. ambassador to the UN after a lengthy confirmation battle, stalled at first by ethics investigations into his business dealings and then unrelated Republican objections.

At the UN, Holbrooke tried to broker peace in war-torn African nations. He led efforts to help refugees and fight AIDS in Africa.



He also confronted UN anger over unpaid U.S. dues to the world body and persuaded 188 countries to overhaul the United Nations' financing and reduce U.S. payments.

Mr Holbrooke, with his long-standing ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, was a strong supporter of her 2008 bid for the White House.



US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke meets with displaced women, during his visit to a makeshift camp for displaced people from the Swat and Buner district, following flooding in the region

Mr Holbrooke visits the old city of Herat west of Kabul, Afghanistan, during the Afghan elections last year

He had been considered a favourite to become secretary of state if she had won. When she dropped out, he began reaching out to the campaign of Mr Obama.

His relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai was strained after their heated meeting in 2009 over the fraud-tainted Afghan presidential election. Mr Karzai brushed it off, saying he had 'no problem at all with MrHolbrooke'.

But the U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan, not Mr Holbrooke, were the ones who ended up developed the closest relations with the mercurial Afghan leader.



The U.S. State Department said on Sunday that Mr Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari were among those calling to wish Mr Holbrooke well.

A torn aorta is a rip in the inner wall of the body's largest artery, which allows blood to enter the vessel wall and weaken it.



The result is serious internal bleeding, a loss of normal blood flow and possible complications in organs affected by the resulting lack of blood, according to medical experts. Without surgery it generally leads to rapid death.

'True to form, Richard was a fighter to the end,' said Mrs Clinton. 'His doctors marveled at his strength and his willpower, but to his friends, that was just Richard being Richard.'

He is survived by his wife, author Kati Marton, and two sons from an earlier marriage, David Holbrooke and Anthony Holbrooke.

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