Even in the second half of the 20th century, it was not easy for blacks in the United States to break into people. One of the few who managed to go beyond this framework was the son of emigrants Colin Powell. The biography of this person is simply replete with high posts.
Origin of Powell
In 1920, a ship carrying bananas, as well as immigrants from Jamaica, moored to the shores of America. Among them was 22-year-old Luther Theofil Powell, who came from a very poor family. He did not even have an elementary school education, but the boy was not a miss. He quickly found a job in the USA and even rose to the rank of department head at the firm. And soon he married the same emigrant from Jamaica, the seamstress Maud Arial Macke, and they had children: first a daughter, and then a son, Colin Powell, the future US secretary of state, several decades later claiming that among his ancestors there was an Irish governor Air Coot. And besides him - Africans, British, Scots, Jews and even Indians!
Childhood and early adolescence
So, on April 5, 1937, a baby appeared in the Powell family, who lived in Harlem near New York. They called him Colin.
When Colin turned six, his parents decided to move to the South Bronx. There, the boy went to a free school, where he studied somehow. Music also did not please the child. The only thing that fascinated him was reading, film and philately. He also heard a lot about World War II and the Korean War, and often presented himself as a military general, inspiringly commanding his tin soldiers. Who knows - maybe it was then that fateful grains fell into the fertile soil?
Without focusing especially on his studies, Colin Powell worked part-time in a small Jewish shop, thanks to which he was able to make his parents' life easier, and also to learn Yiddish.
In 1956, the life of the Powell family changed dramatically. Either in a bone or in a lottery, its head won ten thousand dollars, for which he bought a house in the prestigious Queens district.
But Colin did not have the opportunity to fully enjoy the joyous event, because at that time he already lived in New York as a student. Granite science guy nibbled at City College, learning first the profession of an engineer, and then a geologist.
The beginning of a military career
But Colin Powell did not want to be a geologist or engineer. Parents insisted on studying at college, and the obedient son did not want to upset them, cutting off the entire course from bell to bell. And in the meantime, the heart strove for completely different “stars” ... And the sky gave a chance.
There was a certain program at the college, the participants of which received sponsorship assistance while studying military affairs. Young Powell eagerly seized on this opportunity and achieved his goal: they took him into the program.
As a cadet, Colin showed himself brilliantly. It was immediately felt that he had stepped on his path. During two years of training, he rose to the rank of battalion commander, was engaged in drill training and even managed to take the main prize at prestigious competitions.
The official start date for Colin Powell’s army service is considered to be the year 1958, when the young man enrolled in the Fort Bening Ranger School, where he studied to survive in the swamps of Florida. Behind her was an airborne training. And then the real life of the military rolled down ...
First appointments
Powell's first appointment was to guard nuclear weapons depots in the small German town of Gelchenhausen (near Frankfurt). The American led the implementation of this mission, commanding a platoon. He spent two years in Germany, and they say that it was at that time that he had a personal acquaintance with Elvis Presley.
Then the young and promising officer was returned to the United States and sent to Fort Davens (Massachusetts). At the end of his service here, Colin Powell had the right to demobilize and end the army forever. But he didn’t have this in his thoughts. Of course, he remained in service.
Vietnam
At the end of the summer of 1962, Powell was sent to South Vietnam, where the war was just going on. There he received a baptism of fire and was wounded, holding the position of military adviser to the second battalion of the third infantry regiment of the first division.
After being wounded, in 1963, Colin returned and was treated in the United States, where after three years he was awarded the rank of major. And in 1968 he again went to Vietnam.
This time Powell is brought into battle as part of the infamous 23rd Infantry Division under the name "American". Its soldiers became famous for destroying the village community, sending more than five hundred Vietnamese civilians into the world, mainly women and children. They tried to hide this blatant case from the public for a long time, and even when the information surfaced, Powell tried his best to whitewash himself and his colleagues. But he never achieved his goal.
Close to the leadership of the country
In the fall of 1969, Colin Powell, whose photo already began to appear in the media at that time, returned to the United States, received the rank of lieutenant colonel and entered George Washington University. After graduating with a master’s degree, he trained as Assistant to the President Richard Nixon.
It was a very interesting work, during which Powell took part in meetings with dignitaries from all over the planet: the heads of Japan, China, the USSR, Germany, countries of Eastern Europe, etc.
At the end of the internship, Colin was sent to Korea to maintain the peace established there back in 1953 and to provide all possible assistance to the allies. In the seventies, he worked in the US Department of Defense, and in 1984 he occupied the office of the assistant then Secretary of Defense Weinberg.
But Powell’s career does not stop there. In 1987, he became National Security Advisor to President Reagan, and from 1989 (already under Bush Sr.) Colin Powell, General of the US Armed Forces. And this moment can be called historical, since for the first time a black man took the highest army post of the States. In addition, Powell became the youngest head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
New American Doctrine
Under the leadership of Colin Powell, America implemented the Panama War Campaign, as well as the successful operation of the 91st year in the Persian Gulf "Desert Storm." In addition, this man played a large role in establishing legal authority in Haiti.
Under him, a new American military doctrine was actually formed , which stated: the United States takes part only in those conflicts where their superiority is obvious and beyond doubt. And only when all diplomatic methods have been exhausted. There was another condition that Powell spoke loudly about: the population of the country that is waging war must support and welcome US intervention.
Did not live up to expectations
In 1993, Powell resigned and seemed to be done away with military affairs. The Americans prophesied a great political future for him and showed their confidence. For example, many believed that Colin Powell (the Republican Party at that time had already accepted him into his ranks) would run for US President in the 1996 elections. But he never submitted his candidacy. Meanwhile, according to surveys, people were ready to support him more tangibly than Bill Clinton ...
Colin Powell - US Secretary of State
Four years later, in the 2000 election, Powell himself supported Bush, and the newly elected president thanked him by appointing the United States Secretary of State. And again it was a debut among blacks!
The main achievement of Colin Powell as Secretary of State was the campaign against terrorism, which was organized and launched after the terrible events of September 11, 2001.
It was in the framework of this campaign that the war in Iraq was launched, about which Powell initially spoke out negatively, requiring a thorough investigation and UN intervention. But already in 2002, his statements were voiced that Iraqis were developing weapons of mass destruction, and the war was justified.
These speeches cost Powell’s reputation dearly when it turned out that all the data on the production of weapons (in particular, bacteriological) were taken from the diploma work of some American student ... In 2004, he resigned due to scandal.
After his dismissal, he wrote memoirs, appeared in the press with various articles about America’s foreign policy and was engaged in other public affairs. In the 2008 elections, he supported Barack Obama.
Colin Powell - Politics Personal Life
The former US Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, gives the impression of a very serious person. But in his youth, like many others, recklessness was inherent.
Once he went with a friend on a “blind date”, where he met a charming girl - Alma Vivian Johnson. This event of 1961 determined the fate of both. The couple married in 1962 (before Colin's first departure to Vietnam), gave birth and raised three children: son Michael and daughters - Annamaria and Linda. Michael tried to follow in his father's footsteps, but was fired into the reserve due to serious injuries sustained in a car accident.
Colin Powell, for whom personal life and family are of great importance, has never hidden this. There is information that in 1996 he refused to run for the main post of the United States precisely because of his wife. Like, she said that she had enough of the general, and she would not tolerate the president in the house. And threatened with a divorce. As a result, America lost, perhaps, a very worthy candidate, but in the family peace was preserved!