Colin Powell, a four-star general who became America's first Black secretary of State, has died. He was 84.
Colin Powell, an accomplished and esteemed four-star general who became the first African-American secretary of State, died Monday as a result of complications from Covid-19, according to his family. He was 84.
“Gen. Powell is an American hero, an American example and a great American story,” President-elect George W. Bush said in selecting him to lead the State Department in December 2000. “It’s a great day when a son of the South Bronx succeeds to the office first held by Thomas Jefferson.” Secretary of State Colin Powell makes a point about Iraq during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003. | Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
In 1962 — the same year he married Alma Vivian Powell — he arrived in Vietnam, well before the growing conflict was on the radar of most Americans. His job was to train the leadership of South Vietnamese forces. Powell was wounded when he stepped on a punji stake. “We owe it to the men and women who go in harm’s way to make sure that their lives are not squandered for unclear purposes,” he wrote in a New York Times op-ed in 1992.
As the Cold War came to an unexpected end, the world was reordering itself in messy and sometimes violent ways. “Amid the international tumult,” Matthews wrote, “Powell emerged as America’s most admired and trusted leader.” A ticker-tape parade in June brought out more than 4 million people in Powell’s hometown. “It’s a great day to be back home in New York,” he exulted.in 2017, “is the way in which the American people saw this operation. And they had been told that tens of thousands might be killed. They were worried about this volunteer army that had never been in this level of combat before. And they were absolutely joyful at the results. And they threw parades for our troops.
But Powell opted not to run for president. On Nov. 8, 1995, he announced he was indeed a Republican — and then immediately bowed out. At the end of Clinton’s second term, Powell returned to public service. Still wildly popular, he accepted George W. Bush’s offer to lead the State Department. Powell’s selection was seen as evidence that Bush wished to heal the nation’s wounds after the divisive 2000 presidential election. One day after Bush’s inauguration, Powell was confirmed unanimously.
Weeks later, U.S. forces invaded Iraq. As the war progressed, it became clear that Powell’s facts were nowhere near as solid as he had made them out to be. The invasion of Iraq yielded no weapons of mass destruction. A and B had not added up to C.
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