An Evening with Richard Holbrooke, 6 p.m., Tuesday April 8, 2003, LBJ Auditorium
Combining his knowledge of the inner workings of the United Nations and his ability to broker a deal that ended the war in Bosnia, former United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke's talk to the Friends of the LBJ Library in April will help add insight to current world events.
During his career Ambassador Holbrooke has been a professional diplomat, a magazine editor, an author, a Peace Corps director, the chairman of two important non-governmental organizations, and an investment banker.
He was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1993-1994 before being appointed by President Clinton as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs in 1994. During that time, he was the chief negotiator for the historic 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia.
His best-selling account of that negotiation, To End a War, was named one of the ten best books of 1998 by The New York Times.
Ambassador Holbrooke began his diplomatic career in Vietnam in 1962, serving in the Mekong Delta and the American embassy in Saigon. After a tour on President Johnson's White House staff in 1966-67, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, served as special assistant to Undersecretaries of State Nicholas Katzenbach and Elliot Richardson, and was a member of the American delegation to the Paris peace talks on Vietnam. Ambassador Holbrooke was Peace Corps director in Morocco from 1970 to 1972 and managing editor of Foreign Policy from 1972 to 1976.
He served as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (1977-81). Ambassador Holbrooke is co-author of Clark Clifford's memoir, Counsel to the President. A reception will follow Ambassador Holbrooke's address in the Library and Museum's Great Hall.