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• Born: 5 April 1937
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Best Known As: U.S. Secretary of State, 2001-2004

Name at birth: Colin Luther Powell

Colin Powell became the first African-American Secretary of State in U.S. history when he took office in 2001. Powell was a career soldier who fought in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He rose through the ranks to become a general, then became national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan. Powell became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George Bush the elder, directing U.S. forces during the first Gulf War. Powell retired in 1993 and published his autobiography, My American Journey, in 1995. After years on the lecture circuit, he was chosen by George W. Bush to be Secretary of State in 2001. Powell was often perceived to be a moderate among more conservative voices in the administration. He submitted his resignation to Bush in November of 2004, shortly after Bush won election to a second term. He was succeeded as Secretary of State by Condoleezza Rice, the first African-American woman to hold the job.

Powell's son, Michael, was Chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from 2001-2005.

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Powell, Gen Colin (b. 1937), African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf crisis and war. His family was from Jamaica but moved to the USA when he was a child. By his own admission he was the beneficiary of ‘affirmative action’ (positive discrimination) and rose to the highest command without any combat experience. A born diplomat, he held the line between his irascible theatre commander Schwarzkopf and the other politicians outside and in the armed forces. His economically expressed war strategy was to ‘cut off and kill’ the Iraqi forces in the Kuwait theatre of operations and to reduce their overall strength so that they were no longer a threat to the region. From 2001 to 2005, he served as secretary of state to Pres George W. Bush.

— Christopher Bellamy

(1937–), twelfth chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS)

Born 5 April 1937 in the Harlem section of New York City and raised in the South Bronx, Colin L. Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, rose to become the first African American chairman of the JCS. After his 1958 graduation from City College, New York, where he had been a member of the ROTC, Powell received a commission in the regular army.

As a young officer in the recently integrated army, he had opportunities for leadership not then generally available to blacks in segregated civilian society. He received accelerated promotions to major and colonel, and in 1979 became at forty‐two the youngest general then in the army.

A turning point in Powell's career was his 1972 selection as a White House Fellow. Assigned to the Office of Management and Budget, he learned firsthand the workings of the federal bureaucracy and met individuals who later played key roles in his career. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during both Democratic and Republican administrations, and in 1983 became military assistant to the secretary. Appointed President Ronald Reagan's deputy national security adviser in 1987, he soon became national security adviser.

Selected by President George Bush, Powell became chairman of the JCS on 1 October 1989. In addition to being the first African American, he was the first ROTC graduate and the youngest man to hold the position. Powell was also the first chairman to serve his entire tenure under the 1986 Goldwater‐Nichols Act that made the chairman, rather than the corporate chiefs, the nation's principal military adviser.

During his four years in office, Powell made full and unprecedented use of the chairman's enhanced authority. He directed the reorientation of U.S. military strategy at the end of the Cold War and introduced the concept of a “base force” that reduced the size of the armed forces while maintaining U.S. superpower status. He played a central role during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The army's experience in Vietnam, where he served two tours, profoundly affected Powell's approach to the use of military force. He advocated deploying U.S. forces in combat only for clear political objectives, and then applying overwhelming force to achieve quick victory.

Powell's active exercise of the chairman's authority greatly strengthened the position. As a result, his tenure became the subject of press and scholarly debate about the proper role of the military in policy formulation.

[See also African Americans in the Military.]

Bibliography

• Colin L. Powell with JosephE. Persico, My American Journey, 1995

Powell, Colin L. (1937-) U.S. army officer, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Secretary of State, born in New York City to Jamaican immigrant parents. Powell served in the Reserve Officer Training Corps while a student at the City College of New York. He served in Vietnam (1962-63, 1968-69). After studying at George Washington University, he joined the White House staff, soon becoming an aide to the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Powell held several positions at the Pentagon and in 1983 became a senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. In 1987 he became assistant to the president for national security affairs, and in 1989 he headed the Army Forces Command. In April 1989 he became a four-star general, and in August of that year President George H. Bush nominated him to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that position he helped plan the 1989 invasion of Panama and the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He retired from the military in 1993. In the years since his retirement he was widely mentioned as a possible presidential candidate or secretary of defense. From 2001 to 2005 he served as Secretary of State to President George W. Bush.

Powell was the first African American to head the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

American Army officer Colin Luther Powell (born 1937) served as national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, and under President George Bush became the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993).

Colin Luther Powell was born in Harlem, New York City on April 5, 1937, the son of a shipping clerk and a seamstress, both of whom were immigrants from Jamaica. Powell spent most of his childhood in the South Bronx, then regarded as a step up from Harlem. Despite the urgings of his parents that he should "strive for a good education" in order to "make something" of his life, Powell remained an ordinary student throughout high school. At City College of New York, Powell discovered himself; his retentive mind and leadership abilities made him a conspicuous success in the Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). He graduated from the program in 1958 with the rank of cadet colonel, the highest awarded, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He was then assigned to duty in West Germany. In 1962, while stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, Powell met and married Alma Vivian Johnson. The couple had three children.

Powell's next overseas assignment was in South Vietnam, where he was wounded in action. He then studied at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, finishing second in a class of more than twelve hundred officers. During a second tour in Vietnam he received the Soldier's Medal for pulling several men from a burning helicopter.

The army then provided Powell the time to study for a Master's degree in business administration at George Washington University. He received the degree in 1971, after which he worked as an analyst at the Pentagon before securing what he called a "dream job": an appointment as a prestigious White House fellow in the Office of Management and Budget under the director, Caspar Weinberger, and his deputy, Frank Carlucci, two men of rising influence in Washington who perceived Powell's uncommon abilities and who would help shape his career.

A man of commanding presence at six feet one inch and 200 pounds, Powell was assigned to South Korea in 1973 to command a battalion troubled by racial animosities. "I threw the bums out of the army and put the drug users in jail, " he recalled. "The rest, we ran four miles every morning, and by night they were too tired to get into trouble." Powell's prescription worked, and the tensions that had led to race riots before his arrival abated.

After additional service in Washington and an assignment as a brigade commander in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Powell returned to Washington in the late 1970s, attaining the rank of major general and holding advisory posts in the Pentagon and briefly in the Department of Energy. He next served at Fort Carson, Colorado, and at Fort Leavenworth before becoming military assistant to Weinberger, then secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, in 1983. While Powell was assisting Weinberger, the National Security Council (NSC) began looking at the possibility of sending American missiles to Iran in the hope of expediting the release of American hostages in the Middle East and turned to Powell to provide certain information about the missiles desired by Iran. Powell complied but subsequently questioned the scheme in writing, reminding the NSC leadership that there was a legal obligation to inform Congress of the proposed arms transfer. When it was pointed out that the plan had presidential authorization, Powell did what was requested of him. The illegal missile transfer was later exposed as a key element in the controversial Iran-Contra scandal. Powell's demonstrated record of opposition to the illegality of the transfer and his excellent demeanor in testifying before congressional investigating committees served him well. In June 1986 Powell received a choice corps command in West Germany but left it after six months at President Reagan's request to become Frank Carlucci's deputy on the National Security Council. Carlucci was endeavoring to rebuild the NSC after the Iran-Contra debacle.

In 1987 Powell replaced Carlucci as national security adviser, a post he held for the duration of the Reagan administration. Arms control and attempts to topple the Sandanista government of Nicaragua ranked high on the agendas of Powell and of other key policy-makers during this period. When President-elect George Bush advised Powell that he wished to name his own national security adviser, Powell could have chosen to leave the army to earn a substantial income on the lecture circuit or perhaps in the business world. Money, however, was not sufficient inducement for Powell to retire; promoted to full (four star) general, he took over the army's Forces Command, which had responsibility for overseeing the readiness of over a million regular, reserve, and National Guard personnel based in the United States. Selected over three dozen more senior generals, Powell was nominated by President Bush in 1989 to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the nation's most prestigious military position. Powell was the first black officer to hold this post.

As chairman of the JCS, Powell held a key role in formulating and refining plans for the December 1989 operation that eliminated the corrupt Manuel Noriega regime in Panama. Television appearances in which Powell explained the purpose of the operation brought him to the favorable attention of the American public. "In a performance that left politicians and viewers marveling, " observed a Wall Street Journal reporter, "he laid out the details in tough but carefully measured tones that may have done more than anything else to reassure lawmakers and the public about the predawn invasion."

Powell became similarly conspicuous during the first stages of Operation Desert Shield, the joint effort by the United States and several other nations through blockade and the mobilization of substantial forces in and near Saudi Arabia to pressure Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein into removing his forces from neighboring Kuwait. This small, oilrich nation had been occupied by Iraqi troops in August 1990. It soon became apparent that this operation, unlike the earlier one in Panama, would take months to decide and involved the risk of substantial casualties if and when hostilities broke out between the Iraqis and the international forces, the bulk of them American. It was thus uncertain whether Powell's largely unblemished record for excellent judgment and leadership would remain intact.

When Desert Shield turned into Desert Storm on January 16, 1991, Powell again demonstrated his successful leadership. Six weeks later the Iraqi army was crushed; the multinational forces stood completely victorious. For his part in this Persian Gulf War, General Powell, as well as field commander General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, was awarded a congressional gold medal.

When Powell was named to head the JCS, a former White House colleague remarked of his appointment: "No one ever thinks of Colin as being Black; they think of him as being good." Powell, however, never ignored his background in New York City or the prejudice he encountered in the 1960s when off base at various army posts in the South, "I've made myself very accessible to the Black press, " he once told an Ebony reporter, "and I do that as a way of just showing people, 'Hey, look at that dude. He came out of the South Bronx. If he got out, why can't I." Powell believed that his position as the nation's foremost military leader and spokesman provided a unique opportunity to deliver a positive message to African American youth.

As the youngest man to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Powell would have ample opportunity to accomplish even more should he choose to remain in public service. His name had even been mentioned in connection with the vice presidency by both liberals and conservatives.

Powell remains an active figure in government. During the 1996 presidential race, it was announced that Powell would run. He declined, citing various reasons. The withdrawal was disappointing to many Americans. Powell spends his time lecturing, writing and speaking.

Further Reading

In the absence of a full biography of Colin Powell, those seeking further information can consult several articles about him, including Simeon Booker, "Colin L. Powell: Black General at the Summit of U.S. Power" in Ebony (July 1988); Thomas M. DeFrank, "The Ultimate No. 2' for NSC" in Newsweek (November 16, 1987); Carl T. Rowan, "Called to Service: The Colin Powell Story" in Reader's Digest (December 1989); Marshall Brown, "Powell Reaches the Pinnacle of Pentagon Power" in Black Enterprise (October 1989); Barrett Seaman with Dan Goodgame, "A 'Complete Soldier' Makes It" in Time (August 21, 1989); Lou Cannon, "Antidote Ollie North" in Washington Post Magazine (August 7, 1988); and Laura B. Randolph, "Gen. Colin L. Powell: The World's Most Powerful Soldier" in Ebony (February 1990). Information regarding Powell's political career can be read in an article by J.F.O. Mcallister entitled "The Candidate of Dreams" Time (March 13, 1995).

secretary of state; government official; general; army officer

Personal Information

Born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem, NY; son of Luther (a shipping clerk) and Maud Arlel (a seamstress) Powell; married Alma Vivian Johnson (a speech pathologist), August 25, 1962; children: Michael, Linda, Annemarie.
Education: City College of the City University of New York, B.S., 1958; George Washington University, M.B.A., 1971; National War College, 1976.
Religion: Episcopalian.

Career

U.S. Army career officer, 1958-; commissioned second lieutenant, 1958; served in West Germany, beginning 1958, and in the United States at Fort Benning, GA and Fort Owens, MA; served in South Vietnam, as a military adviser, 1962-63, as a battalion executive officer and division operations officer, 1968-69; served in South Korea as a battalion commander, 1973; commander of the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, KY, 1976-77; assistant commander of the Fourth Infantry Division, Fort Carson, CO, 1981-83; deputy commander, Fort Leavenworth, KS, 1983; commanding general of the Fifth Corps, Frankfurt, West Germany, 1986-87; promoted to the rank of general, 1989; commander-in-chief of the U.S. Forces Command, Fort McPherson, GA, 1989; chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., 1989-93; political appointments, Assistant to the Deputy Director, Office of Management and Budget, 1972-73; executive assistant to the Secretary of Energy, 1979; senior military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, 1979-81; military assistant to the Secretary of Defense, 1983-86; deputy assistant for the Assistant to the President, National Security Affairs, 1987; Assistant to the President, National Security Affairs, 1987-89; Secretary of State, 2001-2005.

Life's Work

Already highly regarded by political and military leaders in the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon, U.S. Army General Colin Powell first achieved national and international prominence in 1990 and 1991. Powell, as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was one of the key leaders of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the military campaigns to protect Saudi Arabia and liberate Kuwait from Iraqi control. During the Persian Gulf War, he was credited with skillfully balancing the political objectives of President George Bush and the strategy needs of General Norman Schwarzkopf and other military commanders in the field.

After the war in the Gulf, Powell was considered for the vice-presidency or even the presidency, but he resisted suggestions that he should run for America's highest office. However, when George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, Powell did not decline Bush's request that the retired general take on the position of Secretary of State. So, when the Bush administration took office in January of 2001, Powell became the first African American Secretary of State in U.S. history.

Colin Luther Powell was born in 1937 in Harlem, the son of Jamaican immigrants who had both gone to work in New York City's garment district. The young Powell grew up in the South Bronx, where he enjoyed a secure childhood, looked after by a closely knit family and a multi-ethnic community. He graduated from Morris High School in 1954 and received his B.A. in geology from the City College of New York in 1958. He was undistinguished as a student, but he excelled in the college's Reserve Officer's Training Corps (ROTC), leading the precision drill team and attaining the top rank offered by the corps--cadet colonel. He was not West Point trained, but his achievements in the ROTC won him a commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

Served in Vietnam

His first assignment was at the Fulda Gap in West Germany, where American and allied troops stood as an obstacle on the Soviet Union's most likely invasion route of Western Europe. In the 1960s, Powell served two tours of duty in South Vietnam. As an adviser to South Vietnamese troops, he was wounded in 1963 when he fell victim to a Vietcong booby trap. His second tour, from 1968 to 1969, as an Army Infantry officer, also ended when Powell was injured, this time in a helicopter crash from which he rescued two of his fellow soldiers. For his valor in Vietnam, he received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a Soldier's Medal, and the Legion of Merit.

Back on the home front, Powell pursued an M.B.A. at George Washington University. After completing his graduate studies in 1971, he was awarded a prestigious White House fellowship, which gave him the opportunity to get his first taste of politics. From 1972 to 1973, he worked for Frank Carlucci, then-Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Caspar Weinberger. It was the beginning of Powell's education in the dynamics of the Washington bureaucracy. Over the next 15 years he returned to the political arena from time to time to continue that education.

From 1979 to 1981, Powell served the Carter administration as an executive assistant to Charles Duncan, Jr., the Secretary of Energy, and as senior military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. When the Reagan administration came to Washington, Powell worked with Carlucci on the Defense Department's transition team, and then from 1983 to 1986 he joined Weinberger again, this time as military assistant to the Defense Secretary. While there, Powell contributed to the department's involvement in the invasion of Grenada and the bombing raid on Libya.

Between stints in the political arena, Powell continued to advance his military career. In 1973, he traveled to South Korea to take command of a battalion and then a year later he returned to Washington as a staff officer at the Pentagon. He completed his military education at the National War College in 1976 and took command of the Second Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky that same year. In the early 1980s, he completed assignments as the assistant commander of the Fourth Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, and as the deputy director at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was in West Germany again in 1987, this time as commanding general of the Fifth Corps in Frankfurt, when he was called back to Washington to work again with Frank Carlucci, the new National Security Adviser.

Began Working for National Security Council

Carlucci had been chosen to head the troubled National Security Council (NSC) in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra scandal. Powell was not a stranger to the NSC's dealings under Admiral John Poindexter and Oliver North; he had first confronted the issue of arms sales to Iran while working under Weinberger at the Defense Department. Yet, even though he had been aware of the covert activities, he remained above reproach because he had always acted according to law and had not become involved until after presidential approval had been given.

Together Carlucci and Powell reorganized the NSC to reduce the possibility for freelance foreign policy. When in 1987 Carlucci took over as Secretary of Defense for the departing Weinberger, Powell was called upon to take over leadership of the NSC. The move earned widespread approval in Washington because, as Fred Barnes wrote in the New Republic, Powell is "a national security adviser strong enough to settle policy disputes but without a personal agenda."

During his tenure at the NSC, Powell did speak out on a number of issues he felt were important to national security, including economic strength, control of technology exchanges, protection of the environment, a stable defense budget, free trade and foreign investment, research and development, and education. He also expressed his opposition to plans for the overthrow of Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and to heavy spending on the Strategic Defense Initiative ("Star Wars"). Even so, as he told Barnes, "I'm principally a broker. I have strong views on things, but my job is to make sure the president gets the best information available to make an informed decision."

Appointed Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush rewarded Powell for the knowledge and skills he had acquired in the military and political arenas by naming him to the military's top post--Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Powell was the youngest man and first black to hold that position. In peacetime, the chairman's responsibilities have included overseeing the prioritization of Pentagon spending and keeping the channels of communication open between the military and the White House. They have also included drawing up plans for military action, first in Panama and then in the Middle East.

Because of a 1986 law redefining his role, the general had more influence than any Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since World War II. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, obliged Powell to exercise that authority. The day after the invasion, Powell advised the president that a number of options were open, including economic and diplomatic sanctions, as well as the use of military force; the Bush administration decided that decisive force was the necessary response. Operation Desert Shield, requiring the massive movement of troops and supplies to Saudi Arabia, was soon initiated as a show of force and to serve as a deterrent to further Iraqi aggression. After touring the Middle East, the general recommended increasing the number of troops to assure the success of an isolate and destroy strategy if it proved necessary. He told U.S. News and World Report: "You go in to win, and you go in to win decisively."

In the early stages of the operation, Powell again demonstrated his ability to manage people and bureaucracies. As European and Middle Eastern troops joined in a coalition against Iraq, Powell directed the quick integration of communications, operations, and authority into a command network under the direction of General Norman Schwarzkopf. During the planning of the air and land campaigns, he aided the president in making political decisions and kept him informed of military plans, but he also convinced the Washington warriors to leave the commanders in Saudi Arabia the space needed to carry out their missions.

He, too, avoided involvement in the minute details of day-to-day operations, exerting his authority only on major issues. He oversaw bombing missions on Baghdad only after the destruction of a suburban Baghdad bunker killed 400 civilians. He rejected Marine requests to launch a true amphibious assault on Kuwait instead of the feint scheduled to aid Schwarzkopf's encirclement of Kuwait by an end run through Iraq. He also convinced President Bush to respond to the February 21, 1991 Iraqi peace proposal with an ultimatum: the Iraqis must pull out of Kuwait by noon Washington time, February 23. When the deadline passed, the coalition began its land campaign later that night as scheduled.

Thrown Into the Spotlight

With the success of Operation Desert Storm, Powell was hurled into the spotlight of media and public attention. Powell found himself the target of public scrutiny and criticism. Some black leaders labeled him a servant of the white establishment and peace activists considered him a trigger-happy hawk. Such criticisms, however, were tempered by praise of him as a positive role model for young African Americans and as a committed defender of liberty.

Because of his leadership during the war effort and his experience as an insider in the Washington bureaucracy, Powell political analysts suggested him as a promising candidate for future political office, either as vice-president or president. But Powell shied away from such notions, and met with Vice-President Dan Quayle to assure him that the general had no designs on the nation's number two executive post. Powell also requested a second tour as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bruce B. Auster reported in U.S. News and World Report: "Powell is able to transfer his unquestioned personal integrity to the institution he leads in part because, while he wields more power than almost any of his Pentagon predecessors, he is not addicted to it."

As a black military leader, Powell has demonstrated his commitment to helping young black men and women succeed in the armed services. He has long contended that the military should not be criticized for putting a disproportionate number of young black men and women in harm's way, but rather praised for its history of providing opportunities to minorities. Powell was quoted in Black Enterprise as saying, "What we are dealing with now is a changing of hearts, changing of perspectives and of minds. We need to start to erase the cultural filter with respect to minorities."

America's Promise

After his retirement from his position as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, Powell shied from politics and pressure to run for high office, directing his energies instead toward helping America's youth. In 1997, Powell, along with Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford, attended the President's Summit for America's Future. The Summit, which took place in Philadelphia, called upon Americans to make youth a national priority and challenged citizens to dedicate their time to volunteer efforts that would improve the lives of America's 15 million impoverished children. Inspired by the Summit, Powell founded America's Promise, an organization which acts to mobilize the nation to provide America's children with five fundamental resources, or Five Promises. These Five Promises, according to the America's Promise website include: "ongoing relationships with caring adults--parents, mentors, tutors, or coaches; safe places with structured activities during nonschool hours; healthy start and future; marketable skills through effective education; and opportunities to give back through community service."

Although the organization focuses heavily on promoting volunteerism, Powell often preferred to emphasize the importance of youth development. In 1997, he spoke about the unparalleled importance of a loving adult in a child's life, saying that the only alternative, as quoted by U.S. News & World Report, is to "keep building more jails." The organization has a presence in over 500 communities and in all 50 states. Powell, as quoted on the America's Promise website, said, "America's Promise is pulling together the might of this nation to strengthen the character and competence of youth. And it's working."

Secretary of State

In 2000, after nearly 7 years out of the political arena, Powell found himself again solicited to serve a President Bush. But this time it was George Bush's son, George W. Bush, who, after being elected to the nation's highest office, called upon Powell to join his Cabinet of advisors. Bush asked Powell to become his Secretary of State. Powell agreed, and became the first African American ever to hold the office. Powell settled into his new job quickly. When Powell reported to work, State Department employees lined up just to shake hands with him. Some of them even wept for joy when they met the new Secretary.

But although Powell remained popular within the State Department, the high esteem in which he was held by much of the rest of the country soon began to fade. Powell was in an uncomfortable position in Bush's administration. He was nearly the only firm believer in the power of diplomacy and the inadvisability of using military force to solve international problems. The rest of the administration, particularly Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were hawks by nature and became even more so after the September 11 terrorist attacks. The largest divisions between Powell and the rest of the administration were seen on the issue of Iraq. Powell questioned the value of forcibly removing banned weapons from Iraq through an invasion. However, Powell felt that it was his duty to carry out the orders of his superior, so despite his private reservations, once the administration had decided to go this route he worked advance the Bush administration's policy. Although some suggested that Powell should resign, he refused to do so, saying that he had made a commitment and had to fulfill it. However, his commitment only extended to one term; Powell stepped down as Secretary of State only days after Bush's reelection in November 2004.

But Powell’s retirement to the private sector was not an idle one. He kept active with a variety of projects, from the serious to the whimsical. Among these were maintaining a busy public speaking schedule, continuing his charitable work with America’s Promise, becoming a strategic limited partner with a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and driving the pace car at the Indianapolis 500 auto race in 2005. Nor was Powell’s new life without accolades – his 1995 memoir, My American Journey, won the 2005 Alexis de Tocqueville Prize. Indeed, he appeared to be vigorous as ever and adjusting to his latest roles with ease.

Colin Powell dedicated his life to the service his country. As a soldier, Powell demonstrated a firm commitment to protecting his country and securing a world where democratic values can flourish. Although he preferred to avoid limelight of high office, Powell became a prominent figure in U.S. politics, advising several American presidents. He also dedicated himself to America's future--her children. Powell became an American success story, but unlike the typical rags-to-riches story, Powell's success stems, not from monetary accumulation, but rather, from all that he has given in service to his fellow Americans.

Awards

Several military honors, including Purple Heart, 1963, Bronze Star, 1963, Soldier's Medal, 1969, and Legion of Merit, 1972; White House fellow, 1972-73; Secretary's Award, 1988; Spingarn Medal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1991; Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1993.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Black Enterprise, October 1989.
• Ebony, July 1988.
• Financial Times, November 16, 2004.
• Los Angeles Times, February 17, 1991.
• Nation's Cities Weekly, June 5, 2000.
• New Republic, May 30, 1988.
• Newsweek, August 21, 1989; March 18, 1990, May 24, 1999; March 5, 2001.
• New York Times, October 15, 1987; September 16, 1988; December 2, 1988; August 15, 1989; October 4, 2005.
• Time, November 16, 1987; August 21, 1989; April 14, 2003.
• U.S. News and World Report, April 25, 1988; December 24, 1990; February 4, 1991; March 18, 1991; December 8, 1997; October 31, 2005.
• Washington Post, March 23, 1987; August 7, 1988; August 10, 1989; August 11, 1989.

Online

• CNN Money, July 13, 2005, http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/13/news/newsmakers/powell_kleiner.reut/index.htm (July 14, 2005).
• “Former Secretary Colin Powell Named Strategic Limited Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers,” Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, July 13, 2005, http://www.kpcb.com/news/article.php?frm_id=55 (December 6, 2005).
• My American Journey, Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com, (December 6, 2005).
• ”Our Founder,” America’s Promise, http://www.americaspromise.org/about/founder.cfm (December 6, 2005).
• SI.com, April 16, 2005, http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/racing/04/16/powell.indy.ap/index.html (April 16, 2005).

Other

• Additional material was obtained online at the America's Promise website, http://www.americaspromise.org.

— Bryan Ryan and Jennifer M. York

For more information on Colin Luther Powell, visit Britannica.com.

1937–, U.S. army general and government official, b. New York City, grad., City College (B.S., 1958); George Washington Univ. (M.A., 1969). The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was the first African American and the youngest person to chair (1989–93) the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first African American to serve (2001–5) as secretary of state. He entered the U.S. army (1958) as a commissioned officer and served two tours of duty (1962–63, 1968–69) during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s he worked in several staff positions in the White House, including in the Office of Management and Budget, and also served in military command positions. In 1979 he was made a major general and the military assistant to the deputy secretary of defense, a position he held until 1981, when he assumed command of the 4th Infantry Division. From 1983 to 1986 Powell was military assistant to the secretary of defense, and in 1986 he served as commander of the V Corps in Western Europe. The next year he was named assistant to the president for national security affairs.

In 1989, Powell was promoted to four-star general, becoming the first African American to hold that rank, and was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He had an important role in planning the American invasion of Panama in late 1989, and prior to the Persian Gulf War (1991) he played a crucial role in planning and coordinating the victory of U.S. and allied forces. He declined to run for the U.S. presidency in 1995, despite widespread encouragement to do so, and in 1997 became chairman of America's Promise–the Alliance for Youth, a charitable organization formed to help needy and at-risk U.S. children. Powell was appointed secretary of state by President George W. Bush in 2001. He advocated the so-called Powell doctrine—that U.S. military power only be used in overwhelming strength to achieve well-defined strategic national interests—while promoting “a uniquely American internationalism,” and he also showed a particular interest in African affairs. As secretary of state, however, his influence on foreign policy issues was not as great as that of National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice (who succeeded him in 2005), Vice President Dick Cheney, and others. Powell was subsequently publicly critical of a number of administration policies, such as the Guantánamo military prison.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1995, with J. E. Persico); biography by K. DeYoung (2006); J. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (2004).

1937 -

U.S. army officer, diplomat.

Born in New York City to Jamaican immigrant parents, Colin Luther Powell received his B.S. in geology from the City College of New York in 1958, and later received an M.B.A. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Powell was commissioned as an officer in the United States army in 1958. He was sent as an adviser to the army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in 1962, returning for a second tour of combat in 1968 to 1969 after the U.S. military entered the conflict in force. His Vietnam service left him with eleven military decorations.

Powell rose thereafter through the army to the rank of general. From October 1989 to September 1993 he was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - the highest military officer in the nation. During that period Powell oversaw the massive deployment of U.S. forces in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, during the 1991 Gulf War and the intervention in Somalia in 1992. He was the author of the Powell Doctrine, which advocates committing U.S. forces to war only if massive force is used in conjunction with carefully articulated political goals and a defined exit strategy.

After several years of retirement from the military, Powell was appointed secretary of state beginning in January 2001. During his tenure he again was involved with momentous U.S. policy decisions regarding the Middle East and Southwest Asia. While he was secretary of state U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and Iraq in March 2003. Powell was also active in pushing Israelis and Palestinians to resume negotiations in accordance with the Road Map for peace created by the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations.

Bibliography

Atkinson, Rick. Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War. New York: Mariner Books, 1994.

Powell, Colin. My American Journey. New York: Random House, 1995.

Trainor, Bernard, and Gordon, Michael R. The Generals'War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf. New York: Back Bay Books, 1995.

— MICHAEL R. FISCHBACH

An American military leader and statesman. After serving with distinction in the Vietnam War, Powell rose through the military to become the first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and played a key role in the Persian Gulf War. In 2001 he was appointed secretary of state, the first African-American to hold that position.

Quotes:

"The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort."

"Experts often possess more data than judgment."

"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier."

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure."

"Either move or be moved."