Sharing Stories of a Man Who Loved Big Challenges

[elleng]

There were tears and laughter and embraces as the crowd began to build Friday night in the Manhattan apartment of Richard C. Holbrooke at a private memorial gathering for the diplomat they remembered as a boss, a source and a friend. . .

Mr. Holbrooke “understood the political implications of the psychodynamics of every conceivable permutation” when people sat down together, Mr. Clinton said.

“Here’s the thing about Milosevic,” he said Mr. Holbrooke told him at the time. “He thinks he’s meaner and tougher than anyone, and you have a reputation for being a nice person. But he is very shrewd. Once you spend an hour with him, he will know that you intend to enforce the peace, and we won’t have to go to war again.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/18/nyregion/18holbrooke.html?_r=1&hp