LIVE: Son and colleagues to eulogize Colin Powell at funeral (Connecting Powell’s Networking Dots)
by: Associated
Press
Posted: Nov 5,
2021 / 12:02 PM EDT / Updated: Nov 5, 2021 / 12:21 PM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Friends, family and former colleagues are honoring Colin
L. Powell, the widely praised soldier-diplomat who rose from humble
Bronx beginnings to become the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff and later served as the first Black secretary of state.
Powell is being
remembered at a funeral Friday at the Washington National Cathedral. President
Joe Biden is expected to attend but not speak. Eulogists are to be Madeleine Albright, who was Powell’s immediate
predecessor as the nation’s top diplomat; Richard
Armitage, who was deputy secretary under Powell and had known him
since they served together in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration;
and Powell’s son Michael.
During her tenure
as ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton administration, Albright
sometimes clashed with Powell, although they became good friends. Both have
recalled the time, during his final months as Joint Chiefs chairman, when she
argued for a U.S. military intervention in the Balkans, asking why the United
States had built a superb military if it couldn’t be used in such
circumstances. Powell recalled being so irritated by her statement, “I thought
I would have an aneurysm.”
Powell’s view was
that the United States should commit its military only when it had a clear and
achievable political objective, a key element of what became known as the
Powell Doctrine.
Powell died Oct. 18 of
complications from COVID-19 at age 84. He had been vaccinated
against the coronavirus, but his family said his immune system had been
compromised by multiple myeloma, a blood cancer for which he had been undergoing
treatment.
The story of
Powell’s rise to prominence in American life is a historic example to many.
In his
autobiography, “My American Journey,” Powell recalled a post-Depression Era
childhood in the Hunts Point section of New York City’s South Bronx, where he
was a mediocre student — happy-go-lucky but aimless.
He caught the
military bug during his first year at the City College of New York in 1954.
Powell was inspired by seeing fellow students in uniform, and he enrolled in
the school’s Reserve Officer Training Corps.
“I felt
distinctive” in uniform, he wrote. He would go on to achieve distinction in a
pioneering Army career.
Although he was
only 4 when the United States entered World War II, he had vivid memories of
the war years. “I deployed legions of lead soldiers and directed battles on the
living room rug,” he wrote — a fantasy forerunner of his Army years.
Powell would
serve 35 years in uniform. Commissioned in 1958 as a second lieutenant, he
served as a platoon leader in what was then called West Germany, and in 1962
was deployed to Vietnam for a year as an adviser to a South Vietnamese infantry
battalion. During that tour he was wounded; he served a second tour in Vietnam
in 1968 and afterward held a variety of assignments at home and abroad.
He distinguished
himself at the Pentagon even before he attained flag officer rank. In the late
1970s he worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and in 1983 as a
brigadier general he became the senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger. He later served in the White House as President Ronald Reagan’s
national security adviser, and in 1989 he was promoted to four-star general.
Later that year, President George H.W. Bush selected him to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
“He was such a
favorite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom –
twice,” former President George W. Bush said when Powell’s death was announced.
It was a
trailblazing American dream journey that won him international acclaim and
trust.
He put that
credibility on the line in February 2003 when, appearing before the United
Nations as secretary of state, he made the case for war against Iraq. When it
turned out that the intelligence he cited was faulty and the Iraq War became a
bloody, chaotic nightmare, Powell’s stellar reputation was damaged.
Still, it wasn’t
destroyed. After leaving government, he became an elder statesman on the global
stage and the founder of an organization aimed at helping young disadvantaged
Americans. Republicans wanted him to run for president. After becoming
disillusioned with his party, he ended up endorsing the last three Democratic
presidential candidates, who welcomed his support.
Powell’s influence was
felt at the highest levels of the U.S. defense establishment long after he
retired from public life. Lloyd Austin, who in January became the first Black
secretary of defense, called Powell a friend and professional mentor. Like
Powell, Austin rose through the ranks of the Army to become a four-star
general.
On the day of
Powell’s death, Austin called him “one of the greatest leaders that we have
ever witnessed.”
Powell was among several prominent national security leaders to die this year, including George Shultz, whose served in President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet and was secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush; and Donald H. Rumsfeld, who served twice as secretary of defense. Just weeks before Powell’s death, a former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, died of cancer.
Connecting Powell’s Networking Dots:
George Soros is
the founder & chairman for the Open Society
Foundations.
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
Richard L.
Armitage is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank).
George P. Shultz was
an honorary director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank)
and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of State.
Colin L. Powell was
an honorary director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank) the chairman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Michael K. Powell’s father.
James E.
Cartwright is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), was the vice chairman for
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a U.S.
Marine Corps general.
Edmund P.
Giambastiani Jr. is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), was the vice chairman for
the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a U.S.
Navy admiral.
Joseph W. Ralston is
a director at the Atlantic Council of the
United States (think tank), was the vice chairman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and a U.S. Air Force general.
Madeleine K.
Albright is an honorary director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank) and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
George Soros was the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Michael K. Powell was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank) and is Colin L. Powell’s son.
Resources Past Research
Shultz and Nunn: US
Must Think 'Strategically' After Russian Aggression (Past
research on George Shultz)
FRIDAY, MARCH 28,
2014
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2014/03/shultz-and-nunn-us-must-think.html
Could More NFL Players
Join Colin Kaepernick's Protest? (Past Research on Colin
L. Powell & son Michael K. Powell)
TUESDAY, AUGUST
30, 2016
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/08/could-more-nfl-players-join-colin.html
Hillary Staffer Who
Bragged About Classified Blackberry Use Gets Job Working for Madeleine Albright
(Past Research on Madeleine Albright)
WEDNESDAY,
JANUARY 27, 2016
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/01/hillary-staffer-who-bragged-about.html
Hillary Clinton Booed
at Debate for Madeleine Albright’s ‘Special Place in Hell’ (Past Research on Madeleine Albright)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
12, 2016
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2016/02/hillary-clinton-booed-at-debate-for.html
FLASHBACK: Hillary
Clinton Fired From Watergate Investigation For‘Lying, Unethical Behavior’ (Past Research on Richard L. Armitage)
WEDNESDAY,
FEBRUARY 12, 2014
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2014/02/flashback-hillary-clinton-fired-from.html
Gen. Martin Dempsey
Apologizes to Slain Navy SEAL's Mother (Past
Research on the Joint Chiefs of Staff)
TUESDAY, APRIL
21, 2015
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