Discussed in this essay:
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, by George Packer. Alfred A. Knopf. 592 pages. $30.
Richard Holbrooke at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 26, 2009 © Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images
Few American diplomats have been so royally and unabashedly loathed as Richard Holbrooke. Even to his many friends and admirers, Holbrooke was someone whose character flaws were best admitted up front. In a 1998 interview, one of his oldest friends, Frank Wisner, with whom Holbrooke had served as a Foreign Service officer…
