Colin Powell, former general and secretary of state, dead at 84
Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the first Black US Secretary of State has died following complications from Covid-19.
The 84-year-old served in numerous Republican administrations, helping to shape American foreign policy for decades.
“General Colin L Powell, former US Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19,” the Powell family wrote in a statement on Facebook.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” they added.
The family said that Gen Powell was fully vaccinated.
He served in combat during the Vietnam War and later became the first Black national security adviser in the administration of President Ronald Reagan. When Mr Reagan’s Vice President George HW Bush took over, Gen Powell became the youngest and first African American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gen Powell would later say that pushing faulty intelligence at the United Nations to advocate for the Iraq War as George W Bush’s Secretary of State was a “blot” on his record.
