With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Holbrooke's Last Words: "You've Got to Stop this War in Afghanistan"

In his final words before emergency heart surgery, Richard Holbrooke, the influential U.S. diplomat who died on Monday following complications from the surgery, apparently urged an end to America's nine-year old Afghanistan conflict.

"You've got to stop this war in Afghanistan," Holbrooke apparently told doctors before entering into surgery, according to family members' accounts originally reported by Washington Post.

Later reports note that Holbrooke made the comments during "painful banter" leading up to his surgery -- and that they were not necessarily "a serious exhortation about policy."...
Read entire article at CBS News