On Monday, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state and national security adviser, Mr Powell, died of complications of COVID-19. His family stated that he had been vaccinated and was treated at Walter Redd National Military Medical Centre, in Bethesda, M.d., where he died. Mr Powell had undergone treatment for multiple myeloma, which compromised his immune system.
Colin L. Powell served for four decades as the nation’s top soldier, diplomat and national security adviser. His speech at the United Nations in 2003 helped to pave the way for the US to go to war in Iraq. He was a pathbreaker, serving as the country’s first Black national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.
Beginning with his 35 years in the army, Mr Powell was emblematic of the ability of minorities to use the military as a ladder of opportunity. His was a classic American success story. Born in Harlem of Jamaican parents, Mr Powell grew up in the South Bronx and graduated from City College of New York, joining the Army through ROTC. Starting as a young second lieutenant commissioned in the dawn of a newly desegregated Army, Mr Powell served two decorated combat tours in Vietnam. He later became the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan at the end of the Cold War, helping negotiate arms treaties and an era of cooperation with the Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev.
