XPost: us.military.army, alt.fan.sean-hannity, alt.activism
XPost: talk.politics.misc

Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state during the presidency
of George W. Bush and led the first Gulf War as chairman of the
Joint Chiefs, has died at age 84 of complications from COVID-19, his
family confirmed.

Powell, the first African American to serve in both of those senior
posts, died Monday morning. The family said that "he was fully
vaccinated." His longtime aide, Peggy Cifrino, told The New York
Times he had been treated in recent years for multiple myeloma, a
blood cancer that can suppress the body's immune system.

"We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical
Center for their caring treatment," the family said in a Facebook
post. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father,
grandfather and a great American."

It is unclear what the status of Powell's multiple myeloma and his
immune system was at the time of his death — or whether the cancer
could have made him vulnerable to COVID-19 despite vaccination.
Studies have shown patients with multiple myeloma are at higher risk
for severe COVID-19.

In a White House statement, President Biden said Powell "believed in
the promise of America because he lived it. And he devoted much of
his life to making that promise a reality for so many others."

Biden said Powell "embodied the highest ideals of both warrior and
diplomat."

"From his front-seat view of history, advising presidents and
shaping our nation's policies, Colin led with his personal
commitment to the democratic values that make our country strong,"
the president said. "Time and again, he put country before self,
before party, before all else — in uniform and out — and it earned
him the universal respect of the American people."

The Army helped Powell find his path
Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was born in Harlem and grew
up in a working class family in the South Bronx. In the Army, he
found a culture where a Black man could find his own path — where
race, background and income level didn't define you, he told NPR in
2012.

"People have asked me, 'What would you have done if you hadn't gone
into the Army?' I'd say, 'I'd probably be a bus driver, I don't
know,'" Powell said.

As a young Army officer, he served as an adviser in South Vietnam in
the early 1960s. During that first tour, he believed the U.S. was in
Southeast Asia "to save the world from communism," he told C-SPAN in
1995.

But after a second tour in 1968, when the U.S. was at the height of
its military involvement in Vietnam, he lost his early optimism.

"We weren't sure how we were going to get out of this war, and we
weren't sure that we were prepared to make the investment that would
be required to either win or get out with honor," he said.

Vietnam forever informed his approach to foreign policy
He would remember the lessons of Vietnam as he rose through the
ranks, eventually becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
under then-President George H.W. Bush.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046981056/colin-powell-former- secretary-of-state-dies-at-84

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