To End a War: The Conflict in Yugoslavia–America’s Inside Story–Negotiating with Milosevic-Fast Shipping

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When President Clinton sent Richard Holbrooke to Bosnia as America’s chief negotiatorin late 1995, he took a gamble that would eventually redefine his presidency. Butthere was no saying then, at the height of the war, that Holbrooke’s mission wouldsucceed. The odds were strongly against it.

As passionate as he was controversial,Holbrooke believed that the only way to bring peace to the Balkans was through acomplex blend of American leadership, aggressive and creative diplomacy, and a willingnessto use force, if necessary, in the cause for peace. This was not a universally popularview. Resistance was fierce within the United Nations and the chronically dividedContact Group, and in Washington, where many argued that the United States shouldnot get more deeply involved. This book is Holbrooke’s gripping inside account ofhis mission, of the decisive months when, belatedly and reluctantly but ultimatelydecisively, the United States reasserted its moral authority and leadership and endedEurope’s worst war in over half a century. To End a War reveals many important newdetails of how America made this historic decision.

What George F. Kennanhas called Holbrooke’s “heroic efforts” were shaped by the enormous tragedy withwhich the mission began, when three of his four team members were killed during theirfirst attempt to reach Sarajevo. In Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Paris, Athens, andAnkara, and throughout the dramatic roller-coaster ride at Dayton, he tirelesslyimposed, cajoled, and threatened in the quest to stop the killing and forge a peaceagreement. Holbrooke’s portraits of the key actors, from officials in the White Houseand the Élysée Palace to the leaders in the Balkans, are sharp and unforgiving. Hisexplanation of how the United States was finally forced to intervene breaks importantnew ground, as does his discussion of the near disaster in the early period of theimplementation of the Dayton agreement.

To End a War is a brilliant portrayalof high-wire, high-stakes diplomacy in one of the toughest negotiations of moderntimes. A classic account of the uses and misuses of American power, its lessons gofar beyond the boundaries of the Balkans and provide a powerful argument for continuedAmerican leadership in the modern world.