This was supposed to have been the "Clinton Round" of trade negotiations. It was supposed to have been the crowning achievement of his second term in office.
But this "Clinton Round" ended in shambles. Suddenly, the world's ruling classes have been exposed as more divided and devoid of ideas than at any time in a generation.
Begin with the revolt of the Third World.
On Friday, US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky was trying to address the assembled delegates.
She was shouted down as delegates from the developing countries banged their tables and booed. They had been insulted one too many times.
Their translator had been removed to service the needs of some committee meeting called by the US.
Their microphones had been shut off, again by the US.
But the last straw was being shut out of a key decision making meeting on Friday. Delegates from the 30 richest countries met behind closed doors, while delegates from the Third World, in the words of one reporter, "were left to mill about in nearby souvenir and coffee shops."
"We are locked out while the big boys decide our future," said Chakravarthi Ragahavan, a spokesman for the Third World Network, which was at the talks to assist the smaller delegations from the poorer countries.
For almost thirty years, the Third World has been on its knees, begging for crumbs from the table of the richest countries.
Seattle ended this overnight.
"Africa is asserting itself for the first time," said Yash Tandon of Zimbabwe. "These people [the Americans] are a shambles. They have no regard or decency. The concerns of Africa have not been reflected. We will not give consensus."
India was "cheated out of development in the 19th century and we will not be cheated again," said Ragahavan.
Where did this sudden confidence to challenge the rich countries come from?
Without any question it came from the tens of thousands who demonstrated outside the convention centre, who battled the police, and who shut down the opening plenary.
Delegate after delegate from third world countries pointed to these demonstrations as giving them the resolve to challenge the big powers.
"The people who demonstrated basically represent the silent majority," said Papua New Guinea Trade Secretary Michael Maue.
But if the Battle in Seattle exposed a massive divide between the rich and the poor countries, it also exposed divisions among the rich countries.
Canada's Pierre (flower-pot) Pettigrew claimed that "this is not only a failure. We made progress."
But European delegates insisted that nothing had happened, that everything was on the table again, that the whole process had to start over.
The Europeans want to keep susbsidies on agriculture. Canada wants them off. The US wants to keep its "anti-dumping" laws. Canada and the Europeans want those gone.
The Battle in Seattle, in a week of mass protests, has caused the thieves to fall out.
Millions now know that these corporate bag-men can have their agenda derailed through mass action.
The Battle in Seattle is the beginning of a new era in world politics.