Veteran US diplomat Holbrooke dies

Richard Holbrooke, a long-time US diplomat who was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, has died at the age of 69, an administration official said.

The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity because the family has yet to make a formal announcement of the death in Washington.

Mr Holbrooke, whose forceful style earned him nicknames such as The Bulldozer or Raging Bull, was admitted to George Washington University Hospital on Friday after he became ill. He had surgery on Saturday to repair a torn aorta.

The hospital referred all inquiries to the State Department, which is expected to make an announcement.

Mr Obama praised Mr Holbrooke for making America safer.

"He is simply one of the giants of American foreign policy," Mr Obama said during a holiday reception at the State Department.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also hailed Mr Holbrooke's long service.

"He has given nearly 50 years of his life to serving the US," Ms Clinton said during a meeting in Canada.

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. It included time as a member of the US delegation to the Paris peace talks on Vietnam.

His sizeable ego, tenacity and willingness to push hard for diplomatic results won him both admiration and animosity.

"If Richard calls you and asks you for something, just say 'yes'," former secretary of state Henry Kissinger once said. "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.

"He's a bulldog for the globe," Tim Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, once said.

The bearish Mr Holbrooke said he had 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.

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 good friends in high school with a son of Dean Rusk, and he grew close to the family of the man who would become a secretary of state for presidents John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson.

Mr Holbrooke was a young provincial representative for the US Agency for International Development in South Vietnam and then an aide to two US ambassadors in Saigon. At the Johnson White House, he wrote one volume of the Pentagon Papers, an internal government study of US 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 US prestige than preventing communism or helping the Vietnamese.

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 1977-81. 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. Mr Holbrooke was US 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.

Mr Obama paid homage to the veteran diplomat as "a truly unique figure who will be remembered for his tireless diplomacy, love of country, and pursuit of peace". He said Mr Holbrooke deserves credit for much of the progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ms Clinton called Mr Holbrooke 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 US in far-flung war zones and high-level peace talks, always with distinctive brilliance and unmatched determination," she added.