19 October 2021 - Colin Powell dies at 84
Colin Powell, first Black US secretary of state, dies of Covid-19 complications amid cancer battle
Devan Cole (CNN, 19/10/2021)
Colin Powell, the first Black US secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. He was 84.
"General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19," the Powell family wrote on Facebook, noting he was fully vaccinated.
Powell had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells that suppresses the body's immune response, as well as Parkinson's, Peggy Cifrino, Powell's longtime chief of staff, confirmed to CNN. Even if fully vaccinated against Covid-19, those who are immunocompromised are at greater risk from the virus.
Colin Powell's Fateful Moment
Dexter Filkins (The New Yorker, 18/10/2021)
It’s a terrible paradox in the life of Colin Powell, who died Monday, that the most important moment of his celebrated career came not when he led troops under fire in Vietnam, or when he orchestrated the successful expulsion of Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991, or when he became the nation’s first African American national-security adviser and Secretary of State.
It came, instead, on the dais of the United Nations Security Council, in 2003, when Powell, who was then Secretary of State, made the case for the invasion of Iraq, based on the conclusion that Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and thus had to be removed by force. The enduring image from that moment is Powell holding up a tiny vial of white powder, which stood for what was supposed to be Saddam’s anthrax, and, mortgaging his esteemed reputation and all the credibility of the U.S. government, telling the world that the U.S. had no choice but to go to war. “My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources,’’ Powell told the Security Council. “What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.”
Colin Powell: From Vietnam vet to secretary of state
(BBC News, 19/10/2021)
Colin Powell came from a humble background to become the first African-American US secretary of state.
A highly decorated army officer, he saw service in Vietnam, an experience that later helped define his own military and political strategies.
He became a trusted military adviser to a number of leading US politicians. And, despite his own misgivings, he helped swing international opinion behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Remembering Colin Powell
Kenneth C. Brill (The Hill, 18/10/2021)
Colin Powell, who died today, epitomized the best of America. He was in many ways a larger-than-life figure: White House national security advisor at the age of 49, four-star general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and finally secretary of state. Those who had the good fortune to work with and for him learned that his professional success was rooted in his admirable qualities as a person. He was smart, inquisitive and open to new ideas, worked hard, expected the best of others and gave them his trust and support in return. He was, in short, a good man.