Yet scandal also surfaced. A Vietnamese business-
man alleged in 1993 that Brown had accepted
$700,000 from the government of Vietnam to end the
trade embargo. The Justice Department concluded
after a year-long investigation that there had been no
bribe. In 1995, a Republican congressman accused
Brown of violating disclosure requirements and evad-
ing taxes. Brown was further accused of awarding
seats on trade missions as rewards for contributions or
services to Democrats; these allegations were under in-
vestigation at the time of Brown’s death.
The Croatia trip was to match American contrac-
tors with rebuilding needs in the war-torn country.
The plane was originally reported to have crashed
into the sea in rainy weather; subsequently, wreckage
was found in mountains a few kilometers from the
Dubrovnik airport. Because of the investigation in-
volving Brown and the Commerce Department, the
anti-Clinton conspiracy community aired suspicions
that the crash had been engineered to eliminate an
embarrassment, and even that Brown had been shot.
Ron Brown is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Impact Ron Brown was a talented negotiator with a
record of public service as well as
business acumen. He was a trustee
of his alma mater, Middlebury Col-
lege, a member of the Council on
Foreign Relations, an affiliate of the
Kennedy School of Government,
and member of many government
committees on business, health
care, and public affairs. President
Clinton established the Ron Brown
Award for Corporate Leadership;
the Commerce Department initi-
ated the American Innovator Award
in Brown’s name. A Brown Scholar-
ship fund benefits promising Afri-
can American students, and the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration named a research
vessel for Brown.
Further Reading
Brown, Tracey L.The Life and Times
of Ron Brown: A Memoir. New York:
William Morrow, 1998.
Holmes, Steven A.Ron Brown: An
Uncommon Life. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 2000.
Phillips, Kevin.Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Pol-
itics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism.
New York: Viking Press, 2008.
Jan Hall
See also African Americans; Business and the econ-
omy in the United States; Clinton, Bill; Elections in
the United States, 1992; North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA). Browning, Kurt
Identification Canadian figure skater
Born June 18, 1966; Rocky Mountain House,
Alberta, Canada
As a well-known internationally acclaimed figure skater,
Browning has achieved monumental records on the ice. In
his career, he was a four-time world champion, a three-time
world professional champion, a four-time Canadian cham-
pion, a three-time Olympic team member, and the first man
to land a quadruple jump in competition (at the 1988
World Figure Skating Championships in Budapest).The Nineties in America Browning, Kurt 123
Kurt Browning leaps during his routine at the World Figure Skating Championships
in Prague in March, 1993. That year, he won both the Canadian and world champi-
onships.(Bernd Settnik/DPA/Landov)