Author of “My American Journey,” Colin Powell has died aged 84 of Covid-19 complications, his family has announced.
The family thanked the staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland, where Powell was receiving care. Mr. Powell had also been battling multiple myeloma, a type of white blood cells cancer.
Mr. Powell, Born on April 5, 1937, in Harlem, New York, to Jamaican immigrants, was a man of firsts. He was the country’s first African American national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state. He retired from the military in 1993 and returned to public service in 2001 as secretary of state to President George W. Bush. He left at the end of Mr. Bush’s first term as the war in Iraq became worse, and growing questions as to whether he could and should have done more to object to it.
“Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell. He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam,” former President George W. Bush said.