- Born
- DiedOctober 18, 2021 · Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, USA (complications from COVID-19)
- Birth nameColin Luther Powell
- Height6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
- Colin Luther Powell (April 5, 1937 - October 18, 2021) was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, and United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American Secretary of State. He served as the 15th United States national security advisor from 1987 to 1989 and as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Bonitao
- In the metropolis, Colin grew up in the black ghetto of the Bronx. After school he studied geology at the City University in his hometown. Powell then moved to George Washington University, where he successfully completed a master's degree in business administration. At the same time as his studies, Powell began training to become an officer in the US Army, which he completed in 1958. In 1962 he married Alma V. Johnson, with whom he had three children. As a lieutenant, he took part in the Vietnam War in 1962/63, which resulted in him being wounded. From 1968 onwards, Powell was again involved in the war in Southeast Asia, this time in a leading position. Since Powell had now attracted attention in politics, he was transferred to Washington in 1972, where he worked in the Department of Defense five years later. In addition to troop commands and staff appointments, Powell served as a military adviser to the Department of Defense from 1979-1981 under President James Earl Carter and 1983-1986 under President Ronald Reagan.
In 1986, Powell was promoted to three-star general and appointed commander of the Vth US Army Corps in the Federal Republic of Germany, where he held this position until 1987. He then rose to deputy security adviser in early 1987 and then to security adviser on the White House National Security Council towards the end of the year. In the highest security office in the USA, which he was the first black American to hold, Powell was involved in the disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union. Eventually he was promoted to four-star general. In 1989, under the new President George H. W. Bush, Powell took command of all land forces in the USA (Joint Chiefs of Staff). A little later, in August of the same year, he was promoted to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this position as the highest-ranking officer, which he held until 1993, Powell accompanied the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the end of the Cold War, which resulted in the largest disarmament program in history on both sides in the 1990s.
At the same time, however, Powell also supported maintaining US leadership in the world, which is why he supported the intervention in Panama in 1989. In 1990, he played a key role in the preparations for Operation "Dessert Storm", with which the US Army waged the Gulf War against Iraq, which was triggered by Saddam Hussein's expansionist efforts towards Kuwait. Conversely, the US Chief of General Staff soon later refused to intervene in Bosnia-Herzegovina for reasons of strategic hopelessness. In 1993, Powell left his high office to initially withdraw into private life. After President George W. Bush took office, he appointed Powell as US Secretary of State in January 2001. In this role, the minister was primarily confronted with the changing foreign policy conditions and requirements that resulted from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and the subsequent US campaign against international terrorism.
In this context, internal differences temporarily emerged between Powell and the rest of the US administration on the Iraq issue in late summer 2002. However, the US Secretary of State later supported the US attack on Iraq in March 2003, which he vehemently defended against the peace pleas of the European allies, above all France, Germany and Russia. In February 2003, the American Secretary of State presented to the world public and the UN Security Council the alleged evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Hussein's Iraq, which provided the justification for the military strike against the country. After the military defeat of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial regime, Powell tried to overcome the diplomatic conflict with some European states triggered by the Iraq war. In this context, the US Secretary of State also visited Berlin on May 16, 2003, where he held talks with Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer about the future reorganization of Iraq and the shaping of transatlantic relations.
After long battles with the so-called "hawks", i.e. the hardliners, in the Bush administration, with whom the secretary of state came into conflict over US policy in Iraq, Powell resigned from his office on November 15, 2004, for the he no longer wanted to be available during US President Bush's second term in office. Powell's successor as US Secretary of State was former National Security Advisor in the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice. Powell publicly regretted his misconduct in the run-up to the Iraq war in an American television interview in September 2005. He was critical of President Bush's Iraq policy and its poor crisis management in connection with the hurricane disaster in New Orleans earlier this month. He was honored with numerous awards, including the Federal Cross of Merit.
Colin Powel died on October 18, 2021 in Bethesda, Maryland.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpouseAlma Powell(August 25, 1962 - October 18, 2021) (his death, 3 children)
- ChildrenAnn Powell
- RelativesPete Wentz(Cousin)Kerry Washington(Cousin)
- Crew cut and glasses
- Was the first Black person to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.
- Served 2 tours of duty in Vietnam, and received the Purple Heart.
- Earned an MBA from George Washington University in 1971.
- Served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993).
- Served as President Ronald Reagan's National Security Adviser (1987-1989).
- [about the late Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh] There are three things I like about Sweden: ABBA, Volvo and Anna!
- Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
- [in response to Harry Belafonte's "house slave" remark about him] If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine. But to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using.
- [regarding the notorious prison at the US Navy's Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba set up by the George W. Bush administration to hold suspects accused of terrorist activities without trial or charges] If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon.
- [2/24/01, in Cairo, Egypt] He [Saddam Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.
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