Colin Powell, who worked with Democratic and Republican US presidents on war and peace but whose fine reputation forever deteriorated when he appeared before the United Nations and made incorrect claims to justify the US war in Iraq, died Monday of complications. by COVID-19. He was 84 years old.
Powell, the son of immigrants from Jamaica, was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx. Powell attended public schools in the city and studied and graduated from City College.
President Joe Biden alluded to Powell’s background in his message on the death of the famous and decorated general.
Powell told Biden, “… I believed in the promise of America because I lived it. And he dedicated a large part of his life to making that promise come true for so many others ”.
Mayor Bill de Blasio noted that Powell was “just an absolute great example of the good, the talent, the skill that comes out of this city.”
“A really great New Yorker,” the mayor added of Powell.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. wrote on social media about Powell: “Our county has lost a giant today.”
“A true pioneer in becoming the first African American Secretary of State. Thank you for your years of service and for never forgetting the Bronx,” added Díaz Jr.
Our borough has lost a giant today. Gen. Colin L. Powell, a Bronx Walk Of Famer, has passed away due to Covid-19. A true trailblazer by becoming the first African-American Secretary of State. Thank you for your years of service and never forgetting The Bronx. pic.twitter.com/hdJC5Q8t0u
— Ruben Diaz Jr. (@rubendiazjr) October 18, 2021
Powell, a veteran of the Vietnam War, rose to the rank of four-star general and in 1989 became the first black person to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role, he oversaw the US invasion of Panama and later Kuwait to drive out the Iraqi army in 1991.
But his legacy was ruined when, in 2003, he appeared before the UN Security Council in his role as secretary of state and defended the US war against Iraq at a time of enormous international skepticism. He cited misinformation that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad’s claims that they did not have such weapons represent a “ web of lies, ” Powell told the agency at the time.
In announcing Powell’s death on social media, his family said that he was fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“We have lost an extraordinary and loving husband, father and grandfather and a great American, ” the family said. Powell was being treated at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Peggy Cifrino, a longtime assistant to Powell ‘, said the former official had been treated for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, for the past several years. Powell’s family’s post on social media did not indicate whether Powell had any pre-existing illnesses.
Multiple myeloma affects the body’s ability to fight infection, and studies have shown that these cancer patients do not get as much protection from COVID-19 vaccines as people without the disease.
Powell was the first American official to publicly blame Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network for the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and made a whirlwind trip to Pakistan in October of that year to demand then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. to cooperate with the United States in operations against the group established in Afghanistan, which also had a presence in Pakistan, where bin Laden was later killed.
Former President George W. Bush said Monday that he and his wife Laura Bush were “deeply saddened” by Powell’s death.
“He was a great public servant” and “widely respected at home and abroad,” Bush said.
“And most importantly, Colin was a family man and friend. Laura and I send Alma and her children our condolences as they look back on the life of a great man. ”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired US Army general, said the news of Powell’s death left “a hole in my heart.”
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