Sheila Jackson Lee: “On Monday, I was extremely saddened to hear about the death of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He was a great leader and a…”

“On Monday, I was extremely saddened to hear about the death of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He was a great leader and a dedicated representative of peace and democracy throughout the world. I extend my deepest condolences to Ambassador Holbrooke's family, his wife Kati Marton, his brother, Andrew, and his children, David, Anthony, Christopher and Elizabeth. Ambassador Holbrooke has had a tremendous career with the United States State Department, which began with a response to President Kennedy's call to service for government work in the early 1960s. Ambassador Holbrooke was undoubtedly a public servant ever since his graduation from Brown University in 1962, when he joined the Foreign Service and was sent to Vietnam. At the young age of 24, Richard Holbrooke, an expert on Vietnam issues, was appointed to a team of Vietnam experts, the Phoenix Program, under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Ambassador Holbrooke has always been a champion of peace and democracy, and this began at a young age with a profound dedication to the United States' international diplomacy efforts.”