Colin Powell

Colin Powell, born in 1937, United States military leader and secretary of state during the first term of President George W. Bush. Powell became the first black secretary of state in U.S. history after Bush took office in 2001. Powell announced his resignation as secretary of state in November 2004, shortly after Bush’s reelection. He remained in the position until Congress confirmed Condoleezza Rice as his successor in 2005.

The son of Jamaican immigrants, Powell was born in New York City and attended City College of New York as a cadet in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). After serving two tours of duty in the Vietnam War (1962-1963, 1968-1969), he held a succession of important military and civilian positions, becoming an assistant to President Ronald Reagan on national security affairs from 1987 to 1989. Promoted to the rank of four-star general in April 1989, Powell was named chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in August, the first black officer to hold the nation’s highest military post.

Powell played a pivotal role in planning and executing the invasion of Panama in 1989 and in the Persian Gulf War (1991). He retired from the military in September 1993. In 1995 Powell published his autobiography, My American Journey, and went on a national book tour to promote the book. During the book tour, there was speculation that Powell would run for president in the 1996 election. However, in November 1995 Powell announced that he would not pursue any political office in 1996. In December 2000 President-elect Bush appointed Powell to oversee the Department of State.

As secretary of state, Powell served as America’s chief ambassador to foreign nations. He consulted with the president and other members of the White House on foreign policy matters and often directly spearheaded negotiations with other nations. He repeatedly visited dignitaries who represented U.S. allies, addressed the United Nations (UN), and was involved in seeking a solution to ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. See also Arab-Israeli Conflict.

In his first full year as secretary of state in 2002, Powell made 16 trips overseas and visited 41 countries. Political observers noted that, among White House officials, Powell was particularly interested in diplomacy, negotiation, and consensus building.

During the weeks and months prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Powell was deeply involved in discussions at the UN about resuming inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Seeking UN support for possible military intervention in Iraq, Powell in February 2003 addressed a UN Security Council meeting where he presented evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, particularly chemical and biological weapons (see Chemical and Biological Warfare). Powell’s presentation was controversial at the time and became even more controversial after the leader of the Iraq Survey Group, a U.S. weapons inspection team in Iraq, said in January 2004 that he could not verify the evidence Powell presented concerning weapons of mass destruction. The Survey Group failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and concluded that the regime of Saddam Hussein had no programs under way to produce such weapons. In September 2005 Powell told ABC News in a television interview that his UN presentation was a permanent “blot” on his record. Powell said he was “devastated” to learn that some U.S. intelligence officials “knew at the time” that his information was wrong and yet “they didn’t speak up.”

Political observers said that, compared to other members of the Bush White House, Powell was at first initially more inclined to seek diplomatic solutions to the growing tensions between the United States and Iraq. This position reportedly led him into conflict with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush advisers who sought immediate military action to oust Hussein. During the war and afterward, however, Powell publicly supported the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and in his September 2005 interview with ABC News, he reiterated that he was “glad that Saddam Hussein is gone.” Following the occupation of Iraq, Powell introduced UN resolutions advocating a greater role for the international community in the political and economic reconstruction of that nation. His announcement of his intention to resign in 2004 reportedly met with White House approval. See also U.S.-Iraq War.