First Black US secretary of state – Colin Powell dies of COVID

The first Black US secretary of state – Colin Powell, has died from complications from COVID-19 on Monday. Powell’s leadership in the numerous Republican administrations assisted shape American foreign policy in the past years of the 20th century and during the early years of the 21st. 

The information of his death was provided by his family via Facebook. Powell was 84-year-old. 

 The post states, “General Colin L. Powell, the former US Secretary of State & the Chairman of the – Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to – complications from COVID-19 mutant. We lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.” 

The family added that Powell was fully vaccinated.

He was a distinguished & trailblazing professional soldier whose career took him from – combat duty in Vietnam to become the first Black national security adviser during the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the youngest as well as the first African American chairman of – Joint Chiefs of Staff under the Presidentship of – George H.W. Bush. 

His national popularity rose in the aftermath of – the US-led coalition victory during the ‘Gulf War’, & for a time in the mid-90s, he was considered a leading contender to become the first Black President of the United States.  

But Powell’s reputation will be forever stained when, – as George W. Bush’s first secretary of state, he pushed ‘faulty intelligence’ prior the United Nations to advocate for the – Iraq War, which he will later call a blot on his record. 

Bush stated in a statement on Monday that Powell was “a great public servant” who was “such a favourite of Presidents that he earned the – Presidential Medal of Freedom twice.

Powell was highly respected at home and abroad. He is survived by his wife, Alma Vivian (Johnson) Powell, whom he married in 1962, as well as three children.