Powell, Colin

Roots

Colin L. Powell was born in Harlem in New York City in 1937, the son of working-class Jamaican immigrants. Growing up in the ethnically diverse but rough-edged neigh-borhood of Hunts Point in the South Bronx, Powell later attested to a colorful but ”directionless” youth (1995, 17). Although not a stellar student, he attended the City University of New York, joining the CUNY Reserve Officer Training Corps detachment. Powell found that he excelled in the ROTC and determined to pursue a military career.

After receiving his Army commission in June of 1958, Powell progressed through a series of assignments in the United States, Germany, and two tours in Vietnam. Powell then attended the Army's Command and General Staff College, the National War College, and earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University. A one-time C student, he excelled at each of these institutions.

Inside the Beltway

While Powell commanded at the battalion and brigade level, he spent much of his time in the 1970s and 1980s in a succession of posts in Washington, D.C., often serving in civilian agencies. Powell was selected as a White House Fellow in September 1972 and assigned to the Office of Management and Budget. His abilities impressed OMB director Caspar Weinberger and his deputy Frank Carlucci, under whom Powell would work once again in the administration of Pres. Ronald Reagan. Powell also served in the Defense Department during the presidency of Democrat Jimmy Carter. Unimpressed by Carter's national security policy, however, Powell voted for Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Powell was called back to Washington once again in 1982, this time to serve as senior military assistant to Sec. of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Working with Weinberger, Powell began to establish the foundations of his legacy, helping Weinberger in 1984 to frame what was then known as the Weinberger Doctrine, a set of principles that established conditions for restricting the circumstances in which U.S. troops should be deployed overseas. Powell's Vietnam experiences made him quite sympathetic to Weinberger's efforts to ensure that U.S. troops were sent into combat only with the will and wherewithal to win decisively.

In January 1987, with the National Security Council (NSC) in chaos because of the the Iran–Contra affair, newly appointed National Security Advisor Frank Carlucci pulled a reluctant Lieutenant General Powell away from his long sought corps command in Germany to aid in the rebuilding of the NSC as deputy national security advisor. When Carlucci succeeded Weinberger as secretary of defense, Powell took over as security advisor, thus continuing his service at the highest levels of politico military policy making.

...