Powell, Colin

Powell, Colin (1937– ), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Born in Harlem, New York City, to immigrants from Jamaica, Powell joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps while enrolled at the City College of New York. He received a U.S. Army commission as a second lieutenant upon graduating in 1958. He served in Vietnam in 1962–1963 and again in 1968–1969, when he was injured in a helicopter crash.

Receiving an M.B.A. from George Washington University in 1971, Powell possessed the necessary combat and educational background to profit by efforts to bring African Americans into leading military positions. In 1972–1973, he was a White House fellow in the Office of Management and Budget, directed by Caspar Weinberger.

After commanding a battalion in South Korea, attending the National War College, and serving in the Department of Defense, Powell in 1983 became military assistant to Weinberger, President Ronald Reagan's first secretary of defense. Powell's policy, management, and political skills led to his appointment as Reagan's national security adviser in 1987. Promoted to four‐star general, he became head of the Army Forces Command in 1989. Shortly thereafter, President George Bush nominated Powell to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the first African American to hold the highest position in the U.S. military.

Powell helped shape U.S. defense strategy during the Cold War's final years and developed plans to reshape and reduce post–Cold War U.S. military forces. He played a major role in the U.S. intervention in Panama in 1989 and in the Persian Gulf War. He retired in 1993. In 1994, at the request of President Bill Clinton, Powell joined former president Jimmy Carter and Senator Sam Nunn in a mission to persuade Haiti's military dictators to relinquish power without a U.S. invasion. A moderate Republican, Powell received support for the party's presidential nomination in 1996 and again in 2000, but chose not to run.

From 2001–2005 Powell served as secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration. In this post he pushed with limited success for more attention to be given to the United Nations and to the opinion of America's allies in the shaping of U.S. foreign policy.
See also Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of Defense; Military, The; Post–Cold War Era; Vietnam War.

Bibliography

Bob Woodward , The Commanders, 1991.
Colin L. Powell , My American Journey, 1995.

Anthony H. Cordesman

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Paul S. Boyer