AMERICA'S NEW SHUTTLE MASTER

By DEAN FISCHER/WASHINGTON

EARLIER THIS YEAR, FRUSTRATED BY THE LACK OF U.S. LEADERSHIP IN THE BOSNIA crisis, Richard Holbrooke was on the point of leaving his post as the State Department's Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. His relationship with Secretary of State Warren Christopher and National Security Adviser Anthony Lake was rocky, and Wall Street, where he had carved out a lucrative career as an investment banker, beckoned anew. Then in July the Bosnian Serbs seized Srebrenica, a U.N.-designated "safe haven," and galvanized President Clinton into belated action. His departure plans suddenly on hold, Holbrooke took charge of the Administration's negotiations on Bosnia. Plunging zestfully into the Balkan thicket, he emerged last week with the dramatic Serb promise to lift the siege of Sarajevo in exchange for a NATO bombing halt.

Neither his admirers nor his detractors were surprised by Holbrooke's diplomatic coup. In terms both camps could embrace, a State Department colleague says, "Dick is very abrasive and arrogant, but he is also a brilliant conceptualizer and tactician." Those qualities characterize Holbrooke's career both in and out of government and have often embroiled him in controversy. As a young Foreign Service officer in Vietnam, Holbrooke attracted the attention of ambassador to Saigon Henry Cabot Lodge and later of Averell Harriman, on whose staff he served at the Paris peace talks. Says U.S. Ambassador to India Frank Wisner, who worked with Holbrooke in Vietnam: "Dick has a passion for prominent people and an uncanny knack for figuring out their agendas." To get broader experience, Holbrooke left the Foreign Service to edit Foreign Policy magazine before rejoining the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Carter Administration. Moving to New York City after Ronald Reagan's 1980 election, he embellished his Establishment credentials by joining Lehman Brothers, dating TV journalist Diane Sawyer, collaborating with Clark Clifford on his autobiography and ghostwriting op-ed pieces on foreign policy for Democratic Party hostess with the mostest Pamela Harriman.

When Clinton became President, Holbrooke sought appointment as ambassador to Japan but had to settle for Germany. In a characteristically blatant concentration on the center of power, Holbrooke cultivated relations with Chancellor Helmut Kohl's top foreign policy expert Joachim Bitterlich, and all but ignored Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, to the irritation of the German foreign office. In October he returned to Foggy Bottom as the top European policymaker.

Though his short attention span and his impulse for self-promotion infuriate colleagues, Holbrooke's intellectual gifts and physical stamina are widely admired. "He's an s.o.b.," says a close associate, "but he is doing a helluva job." His mission has been a blur of intense emotions, with a shocking low point just four weeks ago when three key aides were killed in a road accident near Sarajevo. Holbrooke took a week out to mourn and regroup but soon returned to his peripatetic quest. After 70 hours of negotiation with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Holbrooke professes admiration for his "earthy direct approach" but disavows any intent to transform the Serbian strongman into a statesman. To negotiate, he says, "you end up having to deal with your adversaries, regardless of what they have done in the past." In dealing with the leaders of the warring factions of the Balkans, tenacity and toughness are essential attributes; an instinct for the jugular is a sine qua non. Holbrooke, it seems, has an oversupply of the needed traits.

--By Dean Fischer/Washington. With reporting by Bruce van Voorst/Bonn

With reporting by BRUCE VAN VOORST/BONN