Colin Powell became the first Black U.S. secretary of state and top military officer during decades as one of America's most prominent leaders, but his reputation was tainted in 2003 when he touted spurious intelligence at the United Nations to make the case for war with Iraq despite deep misgivings.
at age 84 from complications of COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated, was the son of Jamaican immigrants who rose to hold senior military and civilian posts and helped guide American actions during two Iraq wars.
Powell, who became increasingly disenchanted with his party amid its further shift to the right and embrace of Donald Trump, subsequently endorsed Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden last year in their presidential races against the businessman-turned-politician. Powell called Trump a habitual liar who posed a danger to the United States.
Powell endured four stormy years as the top U.S. diplomat, often outmaneuvered by Vice President Dick Cheney - with whom he had served closely under the first President Bush - and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In the Security Council chamber, he displayed photographs and diagrams purporting to detail Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as well as translations from U.S. intelligence intercepts. At one point, Powell brandished a small vial containing a teaspoon of simulated anthrax, warning that Iraq had not accounted for "tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons" of the deadly pathogen.
At the time, Powell remained the loyal soldier - a reluctant warrior who did not threaten to quit in protest or voice his concerns to the world. Powell was born in New York City on April 5, 1937, and raised in the South Bronx neighborhood, the son of a shipping clerk and a seamstress from Jamaica who arrived in America in 1920 aboard a "banana boat" - a United Fruit Company steamer.
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