At President Bill Clinton's urging, Holbrooke left his job as an investment banker for Credit Suisse First Boston to become a special envoy to the Balkans in the late 1990s. His role in this case, however, didn't involve negotiating peace as much as it did threatening annihilation. In March 1999, Holbrooke went to Belgrade to deliver an ultimatum to Serb leader Slabodan Milosevic before the NATO bombing campaign. When Milosevic was not compliant with U.S. demands, NATO bombed Belgrade and other targets in Yugoslavia for the next three months on a daily basis. More than 38,000 sorties were flown. Between 1,200 to 5,700 civilian died as a result of the bombings, according to NATO and Yugoslav estimates.
Evidently, smart bombs aren't that smart. On day ten of the NATO campaign, for example, missiles aimed at the ministries of internal affairs caused fire damage to a nearby gynecological-obstetrical clinic and a mental hospital, according to the city of Belgrade's website. On April 23, 1999, another missile strike destroyed the studios and offices of Serbian television, killing 14 civilians. NATO justified that bombing because the TV station broadcast propaganda. NATO also destroyed the Chinese embassy, killing three journalists. NATO said that attack was an accident. Only state-owned factories were targeted, which led some critics of NATO to suspect that the bombing campaign was partly carried out to pave the way for "free-market" reconstruction by foreign companies.
Last year, Holbrooke supported Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy, but switched to Obama in August. At the time, he was vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a hedge fund that is partnered with billionaire George Soros, a Democratic contributor and founder of the Open Society Institute. Soros' foundation helps support "free market" business in developing countries.
In many respects, the Open Society Institute's goals are similar to those of the U.S. government-funded Endowment for Democracy to which Holbrooke also has been tied. The Endowment for Democracy was created during the Reagan administration. The endowment funds U.S. interests abroad by supporting political parties and individuals who favor U.S. foreign policy. In this regard, it is not significantly different than covert CIA programs that for decades influenced election results in post-war Europe, Latin America and Asia. The new chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy is former Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt. Obama has expressed intentions of increasing the funding to the program.
All the threads are coming together.