Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State and Driving Figure in Iraq War, Dead at 84 From Covid Complications
Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of State and one of the driving figures of the Iraq War, has died from complications from Covid-19, his family said on Facebook. Powell was 84.
“General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” the family wrote, noting that he was fully vaccinated. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” his family added.
A Vietnam veteran, Powell’s broke barriers throughout his life in public service. He became the first Black national security adviser, serving under Ronald Reagan; the first Black chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, serving under George H.W. Bush; and the first Black secretary of State, serving under George W. Bush. His time as secretary of State will be most remembered for his role in America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. In February of that year, he presented false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations while making the case for a war that resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths.
Powell has since expressed regret. “It’s a blot,” he said in 2006. “I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now.”
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