On the recordDecember 17, 2010
the greatness of our Nation depends not just on our economic or military might or the drive of our people. We are great in part because we seek not just our own prosperity and security but peace and security for all peoples, and because we understand the relationship between their security and our own. And few Americans in our time have done more to advance those goals around the world than Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. His sudden passing this week is a great loss to this Nation, and to anyone anywhere who values peace and freedom. Richard Holbrooke saw opportunities for peace where others saw only impenetrable thickets of competing interest and implacable enmity. Surely that was true of the Balkans in the 1990s, a region of the world plagued for centuries by ethnic and religious hatreds so deep that many considered them impossible to solve. Richard Holbrooke found a way. Thanks to the tireless work of his diplomatic team on the Dayton Accords, thousands lived who might otherwise have died, and millions were lifted out of the horror of war. Much has been said and written about Ambassador Holbrooke's larger-than-life personality. His presence was formidable, his ambition as towering as his talent. But that ambition, that forceful intellect and arresting presence, were harnessed to a larger goal--the promotion of his Nation's interest, and the larger interest of the global community.
