Colin Powell, who served as US secretary of state and was a high-ranking military leader, has died from Covid-19-related complications aged 84, his family said in a statement on Monday.
“General Colin L Powell, former US secretary of state and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid-19,” the Powell family said on his Facebook page.
“He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.”
Powell, who was suffering from the blood cancer multiple myeloma at the time of his death, was America’s highest-ranking diplomat under George W Bush’s administration during the Iraq war that started in 2003, and chair of the joint chiefs of staff in George HW Bush’s presidency.
Powell was a Republican, but in 2008 supported Barack Obama for president in the race against John McCain. He backed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.
Born in Harlem in 1937, Powell grew up in the Bronx, the son of Jamaican immigrants and a student in New York City’s public schools. He went on to receive a bachelor’s degree at City College and an MBA at George Washington University. During those years he also joined the US military’s reserve officers’ training corps (ROTC), which launched his more than three decade-long career in the American military.
Powell’s star-studded tenure in the armed forces began as a commissioned lieutenant in the US army, including time as a platoon leader of an infantry regiment stationed in West Germany. Powell served twice in Vietnam, where he survived a severe infection, a helicopter crash, and participated in the investigation of the My Lai massacre of South Vietnamese civilians by American troops in 1968.
Powell rose to public prominence as Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser — and later, as the four-star general who became chair of the joint chiefs of staff under George HW Bush. In that role he oversaw the US invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war as the US sought to punish Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait.
By then, Powell was considered a possible candidate for president, but he never decided to plunge into the quest for elected office. He did, however, become known for advocating for a cautious use of American military power overseas, only if clear goals had been established and there was a credible exit strategy along with broad domestic and international support.
In 2001, George W Bush selected Powell to be US secretary of state, a role that would involve managing America’s response to the 9/11 attacks and, crucially, the diplomatic fallout with US allies over the Iraq war. Arguably Powell’s most difficult moment in office came when, at the UN Security Council, he defended intelligence showing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction — which were never found.
After Powell’s family announced his death on Monday, tributes began to pour in, for his years of public service, his willingness to cross party lines as political polarisation intensified, and his capacity to break racial barriers in US foreign policy and national security. In a statement, George W Bush said he was a “favourite of presidents” and a “great man” who was “highly respected at home and abroad”.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said the world had lost “one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed”, adding he felt as if he had a “hole in his heart”.
“Quite frankly, it is not possible to replace a Colin Powell,” Austin said in televised comments, adding he had lost “a tremendous personal friend and mentor”.
“He always made time for me, and I could always go into tough issues — he always had great, great counsel,” he said.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic national committee, wrote on Twitter: “Colin Powell was a statesman who put his country & family above all else. As a young Black man, he inspired me & showed that there are no limits to what we can be or achieve.”
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2021-10-18 12:32:32Z
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