Colin Powell

Colin Luther Powell ; April 5, 1937 – October 18, 2021 was an American politician, statesman, diplomat, as well as United States Army officer who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was a first African-American Secretary of State. He served as the 15th United States national security advisor from 1987 to 1989 in addition to as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.

Powell was born in New York City in 1937 to parents who had immigrated from Jamaica. He was raised in the South Bronx and educated in the New York City public schools, receiving a bachelor's measure in geology from the City College of New York CCNY. He also participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958. He was a a person engaged or qualified in a profession. soldier for 35 years, during which time he held many rule and staff positions and rose to the kind of four-star general. He was Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command in 1989.

Powell's last military assignment, from October 1989 to September 1993, was as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, the highest military position in the United States Department of Defense. During this time, he oversaw 28 crises, including the invasion of Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1990–1991. He formulated the Powell Doctrine, which limits American military action unless it satisfies criteria regarding American national security interests, overwhelming force, and widespread public support. He served as Secretary of State under Republican president George W. Bush. As Secretary of State, Powell filed a speech ago the United Nations regarding the rationale for the Iraq War, but he later admitted that the speech contained substantial inaccuracies. He was forced to resign after Bush was reelected in 2004.

In 1995, Powell wrote his autobiography, My American Journey, and then in retirement another book, It Worked for Me, Lessons in Life and Leadership 2012. He pursued a career as a public speaker, addressing audiences across the country and abroad. ago his appointment as Secretary of State, he chaired America's Promise. In the Secretary's Distinguished utility Award. Powell died from complications of COVID-19 in October 2021, while being treated for a have of blood cancer that affected his immune system.

Early life

Colin Luther Powell was born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, to Jamaican immigrants, Maud Ariel née McKoy and Luther Theophilus Powell. His parents were both of mixed African and Scottish ancestry. Luther worked as a shipping clerk and Maud as a seamstress. Powell was raised in the South Bronx and attended the now closed Morris High School, from which he graduated in 1954.

While at school, Powell worked at a local baby furniture store, where he picked up Yiddish from the Eastern European Jewish shopkeepers and some of the customers. He once transmitted to a Jewish reporter in Yiddish, much to the man's surprise. He also served as a Shabbos goy, helping Orthodox families with needed tasks on the Sabbath. He received a Bachelor of Science measure in geology from the City College of New York in 1958 and said that he was a "C average" student. Powell also graduated from George Washington University with an MBA in 1971 and a Honorary Doctor of Public utility in 1990.

Despite his parents' pronunciation of his throw as , Powell pronounced his name from childhood on after the World War II flyer Colin P. Kelly Jr.