Born Edward Joseph Kloberg III (he added a "van" to his name in the 1960s and changed it to "von" on the advice of Arnaud de Borchgrave, who told him it was more "distinguished") in New York City, he was the son of an engineer who built housing projects.
Von Kloberg, who often referred to his clients as "the damned,"[1] eventually went on to represent Saddam Hussein, Samuel K. Doe of Liberia, Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania, Mobutu Sésé Seko of the then-Zaire and the Burmese embassy in the United States.
Spy magazine once ran a sting operation against von Kloberg, in which a staff employee posed as a neo-Nazi who advocated the annexation of Poland by Germany.
Following publication of the story, von Kloberg showed up at the magazine's Washington office wearing a helmet, announcing that he was ready to "take the flak".
In 2001, exiled King Kigeli V of Rwanda invested von Kloberg as a Chevalier Grand Croix of the Royal Order of the Intare.