Happy To Be There For It
Can I focus on feeling that way?
I recently read Our Man — Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer.
It was a fascinating look at a life spent as a diplomat and ambassador, and how his own flaws and imperfections intersected with his brilliance over the course of his career.
Holbrooke entered the foreign service just out of college. His first assignment was in Vietnam during the war. He was committed to finding genuine solutions for the South Vietnamese people. His misgivings about the war grew over time, and he spent the rest of his life trying to warn subsequent administrations to avoid the willful blindness that kept the U.S. there for so long and cost so many lives.
One passage about Holbrooke’s time in Vietnam stood out to me. On August 21, 1963, he woke up and heard the Vietnamese national anthem playing, followed by an announcement that martial law had been declared by Ngo Dinh Diem.
The night before, Diem had sent his forces to raid Buddhist pagodas, believing that anti-government protesters were being given shelter there. There was chaos in the streets. Holbrooke got out the door the minute he heard the news and headed into the heart of it.
