RICHARD HOLBROOKE TO DELIVER WALLENBERG LECTURE TONIGHT

Former Assistant Secretary of State Richard C. Holbrooke, the chief negotiator behind the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia, will deliver the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Lecture at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Sciences Building auditorium.

The annual Wallenberg Lecture, part of the President's Lecture Series, is sponsored by the Marc and Connie Jacobson Philanthropic Foundation. It honors the memory of one of the legendary figures of World War II. Holbrooke's talk, "Humanitarian Issues: AIDS and Refugees - Why They Matter to All of Us," is free and open to the public. It was rescheduled from April 18.

Acclaimed by The New York Times as a "master of impossible missions," Holbrooke became known as the world's premier negotiator by arranging an unprecedented multiparty agreement, bringing the United States back into good standing with the United Nations. At the same time, he persuaded U.N. members to reduce the United States' share of dues and assessments, convinced Congress to release $582 billion in unpaid U.N. assessments, and enlisted the aid of media mogul Ted Turner to pay the balance of those dues.

For his work on the Dayton accords, Holbrooke received five Nobel Peace Prize nominations. His best-selling account of the negotiations, "To End a War," was named one of the 10 best books of 1998 by The New York Times.

Holbrooke began his foreign service career after graduating from Brown University in 1962. He served on the Vietnam staff of President Lyndon Johnson and as Peace Corps director in Morocco. President Jimmy Carter appointed him assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in 1977, and President Clinton named him to that same office for European and Canadian affairs, making Holbrooke the only person ever to hold assistant secretary of state posts in two regions.

Holbrooke has served as vice chairman of CS First Boston and as managing director of Lehman Brothers.