Richard Holbrooke Quotes
If the press knows about a problem, big or small, that problem is far more likely to receive the personal attention of senior policy makers, then if it remains a well-kept secret.
Richard Holbrooke, 1941-2010, U. S. Delegate to the United Nations, Assistant Secretary of State and Special Envoy (Democrat), Ambassador to Germany, “The Machine That Fails”, Foreign Policy, Number 1, Winter 1970-1971
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time there was no Secrecy & Classification System nor any laws enforcing secrecy or confidentiality. However there was no freedom of information laws of expectations even on the part of journalists. This was the first Freedom of Information policy of the American government. Some politicians were more open than others but there was no national, governmental before this. There were however leakers and whistleblowers though the terms were not in use. Note that Roosevelt herein created the first whistle blower protection—himself.
In 2007 a new phenomenon appeared on the political scene where people who had taken amateur videos of politicians with inexpensive cameras or even cell phones began to “publish” them on a video web site called “U-Tube” which allowed anyone to do this for free. Suddenly the potentially or actually embarrassing video was not only able to be viewed by millions but via e-mail millions more were made aware of the video’s existence. In 24 hours an embarrassing video had more viewers then would see it on the national evening news. Brody was the first person to give it a name and warn politicians about the problem—The U-Tube Moment.
Shortly thereafte,r he presented a a proof that any sufficiently large integer can be written as a sum of 1046 tenth powers – a fascinating finding that has proved of absolutely no socially utilitarian use. Congress and State Legislators beccome upset when public money is spent on new mathematial advances that don't seem to have any practical utility. However, much abstract mathematics was developed many years before society discovered that they were useful and in many cases invaluable. Also, even when a new mathematical creation never has any utility, it often leads to a more advanced form of mathematics for which there are useful applications.
Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world (Asia from 1977 to 1981 and Europe from 1994 to 1996).
