Richard Holbrooke Quotations

You will never catch up with the spread of AIDS no matter how much money, no matter how many antiretrovirals are put into the system, unless you stop its growth. And the only way to stop its growth is prevention.

I think history is continuous. It doesn't begin or end on Pearl Harbor Day or the day Lyndon Johnson withdraws from the presidency or on 9/11. You have to learn from the past but not be imprisoned by it. You need to take counsel of history but never be imprisoned by it.

In short, you can't let the deadline define the mission. The mission has to define the duration.

Pakistani politics is complicated, and I think it's not something a foreigner can easily assimilate and understand.

World War I was not inevitable, as many historians say. It could have been avoided, and it was a diplomatically botched negotiation.

A peace deal requires agreements, and you don't make agreements with your friends, you make agreements with your enemies.

As countries grapple with modernization, people who are left behind tend to hold firmer and firmer to their view of the evil of modernity.

The United Nations is an indispensable but deeply flawed organization. It is valuable to the United States, and the United States is invaluable to it. We need to reform it.

People in uniform are not sacrosanct. They don't have all the answers. The use of force is a political decision at its core, in terms of its objectives; then the military, as the experts, must be brought in to tell you how to do it.

Diplomacy is like jazz: endless variations on a theme.

United Nations peacekeepers are going all over the world spreading AIDS even while they're trying to bring peace. What a supreme irony.

If a country denies it has AIDS, that country will inevitably become an even greater victim.

Nothing generates more heat in the government than the question of who is chosen to participate in important meetings.

The World War II generation believed the United States could do anything - anything... And Vietnam was a shattering experience for everyone.

We should not be surprised that democracy is imperfect even in Western countries.

You have to test your hypothesis against other theories. Certainty in the face of complex situations is very dangerous.

I think Americans understand that in Afghanistan, unlike in Iraq and Vietnam, we are fighting an enemy allied with the people who attacked us on 9/11.

By the way, if you do your job on behalf of your country, you have meetings where you put your position forward strongly, and the other side does the same thing. And I've had plenty of meetings in my career that really were heated, people yelling at each other.

There's no question that the next generation of terrorists, rather than going for small, little dramas, will go for the big one. They now understand that the way to get the world's attention is not strapping bombs to themselves in a pizza parlour, but to do something so horrific it gets you into the Guinness Book of World Records for terrorism.

The United States supports the reintegration of people who have fought with the Taliban into Afghan society provided they: one, renounce al Qaeda, two, lay down their arms and renounce violence, and three, participate in the public political life of the country in accordance with the constitution.

I have worked in every - every Democratic administration since the Kennedy administration, and I know dysfunctionality when I see it.

I'm a product of the Kennedy era. Kennedy's Inaugural plus the accident of Dean Rusk brought me into the government. Those were my values.

The male elites that run most countries are exceedingly uncomfortable with the subject of AIDS because it's a sexually transmitted disease.

I still believe in the possibility of the United States, with all its will and all its strength, and I don't just mean military, persevering against any challenge. I still believe in that.

I'm not a wide-eyed imperialist who wants to see Americans manning outposts all over the world. Not outposts to freedom in the cold war cliche, but islands of stability and seas of ethnic strife. That is not what anyone should feel comfortable seeing Americans doing.

We are at the brink...time is very short.

We are at the brink. Time is short.

There are certain kinds of second-tier confrontations which the U.S. does not need to get directly involved in. However, even in the second tier of problems, our intervention as a friend to both sides is important.

We would view with the greatest possible concern any such event, ... It would do Indonesia immense, perhaps irreparable damage.

Ultimately the decision as to what happens will be made by the decisions and actions of the Yugoslav leadership. They have the power to stop this tragedy. They have the power to take action to reverse it.

We're still behind. But we picked up some steam and we closed the gap.

We want to change it from a New York institution with regional branches into a global institution with a New York headquarters.

We hope to make clear to president Milosevic and the people of Yugoslavia the extreme gravity of the situation,

Milosevic is now fully discredited or will be shortly whether he is in the Hague or in a Belgrade cell. Politically he is over.

one of the worst of the people in the region -- a racist, a separatist, a war criminal ...

Nothing is changed. The situation is very serious.

On Monday, NATO will meet to authorize action.

I would be misleading you if I suggested that today's talks resulted in any significant or substantial change of the situation.

I would be misleading you if I suggested that (Monday's) talks resulted in any substantial change in the situation.

I would be misleading you if I suggested that (a first round of) talks resulted in any substantial change in the situation.

If we don't have full and verifiable compliance, the United States will take a very strong position in favor of resuming the air strikes.

I am satisfied that every one of the worst-case scenarios was wrong. Total NATO deaths from hostile action in Bosnia since Dayton have been zero.

He faces two futures now -- to spend the rest of his life on the run or else he can defend himself in the International Court of The Hague.

there is no change in (the American) position in the sense there is a clear disagreement between the Russian government and NATO. But that does not mean we cannot still continue close contacts.

He was a communist opportunist and became an opportunistic nationalist. His actions led to the deaths of over 300,000 people, four wars, the instability in Europe, creation of criminal gangs ... he was never going to see daylight again and that was appropriate and now he's gone.

I think it's very important for all Americans, whether they opposed the war or supported to it, whether they are liberals or conservatives, Republicans, Democrat or independents, to be able to say with pride we won -- to embrace the victory -- even as we begin to discuss the very difficult decisions that lie ahead,

I think it's quite clear that his nationalism contributed to the wars in the Balkans,

I think that Ted Turner's offer ... provided us with the flexibility he had intended it to... This was not simply the case of a rich person giving money to build a building. It was money to change a situation,

It is a struggle of great historic consequence. Indonesia is one of the most important countries in the world, the world's third largest democracy,

It is enshrined in the Dayton Peace Accords, but he never intended to comply with it, ... He never imagined he would end up where he is today.

I think this is a ridiculous outcome, ... These people are innocent and they should be freed immediately. They are not spies.

will emerge from his conversations with Secretary Albright.

We hope to bring the parties back to the negotiating table, ... but the hope to avoid war is very small.

We have agreed with President Milosevic on a ground verification program augmented with an important aerial verification program.

Three hundred thousand people dead and 2.5 million homeless, all because of Slobodan Milosevic.

We are where we were earlier in the day, we're where we were yesterday,

We are in a very grim situation, and everybody knows how serious it is. We are not anywhere near a point where everyone can be satisfied on either side.

We are running almost a year behind schedule on the civilian parts of the Dayton agreement,

we are on the brink of military action.

We are not learning anything here that isn't in previous accounts, ... But to be in the physical presence of the events, that is different. While we are trying to forge a peace, we need to remember what brought us here.

We are not learning anything here that isn't in previous accounts,

The Democratic Party is the party that has created . . .

We don't want this in any way to affect our mission, ... I think you are going to see the international community prepare for a very strong and swift response against those responsible, and we all know who they are.

We're not out of the emergency yet. We're still in it.

This tragedy in Kosovo has been a noble undertaking, ... Many foreigners, many Americans have said to me, 'Why is the United States bothering?' The answer is because we could make a difference and tried to make a difference.

While we are trying to forge a peace, we need to remember what brought us here.

While the level of fighting (in Kosovo) may have abated temporarily, the capacity for its resumption is there,

We showed our very strong support for Montenegro's integrity and its ability to run its own affairs,

We are very concerned ... we are only a few days away from a tragedy of even greater dimensions. We might be on a collision course here between Yugoslavia and the Western authorities including NATO.

We should commit ourselves to use the U.N. for positive purposes ... and not for inflaming already angry people,

At this point everyone's agreed to the principle of 51/49 but everyone's 51% and everyone's 49% is different,

diving off a diving board without knowing if there is any water in the pool.

fixing some of the mistakes we couldn't fix at Dayton.

there's a general sense at the U.N. that process is what this place is all about.

The United States and our allies and the Arab neighbors of Saddam ... must recognize that as long as Saddam Hussein remains in power he is a destabilizing factor for the entire region. He's a very dangerous man,

the U.N. is being tested in Kosovo as it has never been tested before, with responsibilities greater than ever before.

The Security Council has taken a critical step toward helping Congo and the region come to the peace that it so desperately needs,

The status quo is stable, but it won't be stable forever,

The situation therefore remains fully as serious today as it was a week or two ago. We hope to make clear to President Milosevic and the people of Yugoslavia the extreme gravity of the situation.

The situation is as serious now -- perhaps more serious -- than it was in October,

These contacts were designed to find out if the people with whom the American officials met were in fact people who have the ability to influence and control all the people with the weapons.

People give money all the time, and I commend them for it, but you have to go a long way to find a gift that meant as much difference as this one.

Dayton is a demonstration that American leadership is indispensable. But leadership means cooperation with allies and pressure on adversaries. Neither rule was followed in Iraq , with disastrous consequences.

Are we satisfied? Of course not. There has been no change on the American position ... that Mr. Karadzic should present himself to The Hague for trial.

As highly successful and secure Americans, they could have lived a comfortable life surrounded by their family and their many friends,

As for the peace process, we will continue active negotiations in the next few days.

The British Ambassador is coming this morning with us to Pristina for talks, representing his own government and, by extension, the whole Contact Group.

This is a big step forward, ... The next set of steps is to talk to all the parties, get guarantees from them about the safety of the U.N. forces.

This place has been a mess for a long time, but a different kind of mess. The war was messy, the decade that preceded the war was messy, the history back to 1912 was messy ... and the task is immense,

They're loaded for bear. They're all expecting tough negotiations. They talk peace, but they don't show the slightest readiness for compromise. I suppose you could say that's to be expected on the eve of talks like this, but we're really hunkering down.

They're having a little bit of trouble getting their political act together,

It was a mistake to bring this kind of resolution to the floor in the middle of a world crisis.

Does the Internet pose a danger in developing countries?

The OAU process got stalled in Algiers about a week ago .... It didn't collapse so much as it was suspended without progress.

That is why we are here today, to continue the progress,

It's hard exaggerate this. If it had been for Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnia would not exist today ... He was the visionary.

It was a grim briefing. U.S. diplomatic observers are doing a terrific job bringing us information, and the information is not good.

I want to point out in the clearest possible terms that long-term peace and stability in the Balkans will not be possible as long as the current leadership in Belgrade is in power. And those people who have been indicted also should be brought to justice.

It was his ruthlessness and vision that helped to create Bosnia and Herzegovina,

A rough kind of justice has ended his life in a padded cell after his crimes were exposed and witnesses came forward including his own associates and that, I think, had a powerful effect.