WASHINGTON — Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. envoy whose robust diplomacy forged a peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, has a tough-guy image, but he revealed a sentimental side during a Rose Garden ceremony Thursday in which he was nominated as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Apparently choking back tears, he spoke of his late father's great respect for the United Nations.
Holbrooke, 57, described how his father took him at age 8 to the then-newly completed United Nations building in New York.
"These buildings, my father said, would become the most important in the world. They would prevent future wars," said Holbrooke, breaking down briefly and turning to Clinton for a reassuring pat on the shoulder before continuing his remarks at the White House.
"My father did not live to see how his dream for the U.N. dissolved in the face of the harsh realities of the Cold War and the inadequacies of the U.N. system itself. But I never forgot the initial visit and my father's noble, if overly idealistic, dream," he said.
