Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell

Abstract

The son of Caribbean immigrants who would serve two tours in the Vietnam War, be chosen National Security Advisor (1987-1989), rise to the rank of four-star general in the United States Army (1989), become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993), and serve as secretary of state (2000-2004) during President George W. Bush's first term is widely considered one of the most highly regarded military figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Given that Powell was an officer amid a sea of resentful White officers, not to mention enlisted men, it is surprising that this topic was not fully developed.

Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell by Karen DeYoung New York: Alfred Knopf, 2006. 610 pp. $17.95 paperback

Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung covers the arc of Colin Powell's military and political career in this well-researched 600-page biography. The son of Caribbean immigrants who would serve two tours in the Vietnam War, be chosen National Security Advisor (1987-1989), rise to the rank of four-star general in the United States Army (1989), become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-1993), and serve as secretary of state (2000-2004) during President George W. Bush's first term is widely considered one of the most highly regarded military figures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Of the three books that I have read about Colin Powell, I found Soldier the most informative and, to some extent, most compelling. Of course, DeYoung had the benefit of both Powell's autobiography, My American Journey (1996), and Howard Means' Powell: Soldier/ Citizen/ Statesman (1992)- two works that undoubtedly served as the foundation on which DeYoung's work was built. Consequently, DeYoung's book goes beyond both Means' and Powell's texts, but not as much as I would have liked. DeYoung's account of Powell's childhood is, for the most part, ground that has been plowed over and again. There is some fresh material, though, that expounds on the strong ties between the U.S. Powell clan and those who live in Jamaica, the birthplace of his father and mother. We see that Powell's Jamaican relatives are as proud of him as he is of them. Although not prominently featured in the book, Powell's pride in his Caribbean heritage is clear. The writer also makes clear that while the Powell story is a great American tale, his is not a Horatio Alger fable. From day one, Powell had the benefit of strong and loving parents, and his extended family provided a solid support network. This upbringing would form the basis of Powell's constitution that would mesh nicely with the military life he would eventually lead. Although neither of Powell's parents was college educated, they emphasized getting a good education. Not surprisingly, the Powell children were expected to go to college. While Powell was by no means an honors student, at the working class City College of New York he would find his life's purpose.

One of the more interesting parts of the book is the few pages devoted to Powell meeting his wife Alma and their courtship, which eventually led to a long and prosperous marriage. Although Powell and Alma were the same age, Alma remembered how fresh faced he looked when he first arrived to take her out. Embarrassed by what she erroneously perceived as an age gap, she hurried to scrub off the make-up that she had applied to make herself appear too sophisticated for her blind date. Although brief, the story is rich and gives the reader insight into some of the intimate goings-on in the life of Colin Powell, who by his mid-20s had a clear sense of what he wanted and with whom he would embark on the long, arduous journey that is the life of a career solider. Although Alma was not out in front, she was the bedrock of his career.

One of the many areas in which this book is lacking is the attention given to Colin's mother. While there is some discussion of her, the author does not offer the same kind of visual image of her as is provided for Luther Powell. The elder Powell is depicted in bold relief while Colin's mother is given short shrift. Moreover, the writer missed an opportunity to talk about how the deaths of both Powell's father and mother impacted him mentally during his meteoric rise within the ranks of the U.S. army. It is clear from reading this book and the two mentioned earlier that Powell's family was a close-knit group. Rarely are readers afforded a glimpse of the human side of the heralded subjects about whom they read.

Powell joined the military during a period when lifein the U.S. armed forces was trying under the best of circumstances for Black Americans. Some of Powell's early stints were spent in the South, yet surprisingly there is very little in the book that speaks to the racial climate that existed in places like Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Benning, Georgia. Surely, Blacks on those bases were not immune to racial hostility. Instead, one gets the sense that Powell encountered little of that and when he did, it was subtle in nature. Given that Powell was an officer amid a sea of resentful White officers, not to mention enlisted men, it is surprising that this topic was not fully developed. There are passages in the book that are peppered with stories of racial antipathy on the part of White townspeople, but nothing substantive. Also, a subject alluded to but not given the attention it deserves is the contribution of the Black soldiers who came before Powell-those who blazed a trail that Powell would follow his entire career. At times, references are made to the Buffalo Soldiers and the like, but there is no in-depth discussion of earlier Black soldiers on whose shoulders Powell stands. That Powell is a student of military history is widely known by students of his career; however, for reasons that are unclear DeYoung does not explore this. Had DeYoung done so, she would have shown a man who is very much aware of the debt he owes those such as Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Sr., Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Col. Charles Young, 2nd Lt. Henry O. Flipper, Capt. Frederick C. Branch, 1st Lt. James Reese Europe, and 1st Lt. Vernon J. Baker. Certainly, the reader would have received a rich lesson in Black military history, enabling both the reader and DeYoung to put the Powell legacy in proper context.

The book's greatest contribution to the literature on Powell is the section devoted to his four years as secretary of state. Unfortunately for Powell his tenure in that office may well always be reduced to February 5, 2003, when he gave a convincing and unwavering speech before the U.N. Security Council-maintaining that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Later it was learned that Powell's report was greatly exaggerated. One wonders if Powell was exploited. If there was one American in politics who engendered trust among the American people, it was Colin Powell. Ever since he delivered the memorable Gulf War speech before a nationally televised audience in 1991, the American people have trusted him. Moreover, Powell has built a reputation as a man of character and someone who has a strong sense of loyalty to his commander in chief. Given that, it may be that some within the White House played on this perception of Powell hoping that he would be able to, if not charm the American people and member states of the United Nations, at least convince them that Iraq posed a nuclear threat. In the minds of those White House strategists, if Powell were successful, the war would be a fait accompli.

Ironically, although Powell was ostensibly President Bush's principal cabinet officer, DeYoung reveals a secretary of state who was often left out of important discussions regarding matters of foreign affairs. Instead, according to DeYoung, the President relied heavily on those who presumably, and more often than not, told him what he wanted to hear-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Given Powell's vast foreign policy experience, it is unthinkable that Powell sometimes went unconsulted on matters upon which he built his career. Had Powell served under Clinton (someone whom he liked personally as he found him engaging, open-minded, and intellectually curious) in the same capacity, it is likely that Powell's legacy as secretary of state would be cemented alongside Gen. George Marshall, someone whom Powell holds in high regard. Unfortunately, Powell served under a president who likely selected Powell as secretary of state not because he intended to glean from Powell all that he had to offer the president, but because Powell brought a level of legitimacy to a presidential candidate whom many considered weak in foreign policy-legitimacy that President Bush could not have gotten in anyone else.

DeYoung had the benefit of six extended interviews with Powell, yet there were many topics that one would consider typical fare for the standard biography that went unexplored or underexplored. As a result, the reader does not come away with any real and consistent sense of Powell's inner life. Why this is so is unclear-perhaps it has more to do with the subject than the interviewer. There are glimpses of Powell's personal life, such as when DeYoung discusses Alma Powell's bouts with depression and the angst-filled nights in 1995 when Powell was being encouraged to run for the presidency. But even then the impact of these developments on his family is not fleshed out in the way that other, less-personal aspects in this volume are. For instance, the author takes great pains to show the peculiarities of Powell's relationship with both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Troublingly, Powell never had the kind of close working relationship that one would expect of a less-experienced president and someone of Powell's ilk. DeYoung reveals that President Bush never had more than a couple of one-on-one meetings with his supposed principal advisor. And of those meetings, none was of the intellectual nature that Powell had had with former President Clinton. Powell's relationship with Cheney was just distant, if not more. Although Powell and Cheney had known and worked with each other for years, one does not get the sense that this was a relationship built on trust or mutual affection. In fact, De Young suggests that there were times when Powell was marginalized and other times when his influence was simply undercut by the vice president. DeYoung characterizes Powell as an insider who, to the detriment of the country, was at times treated very much like an outsider. DeYoung however misses an opportunity to explore why Powell was kept at arm's length and, more importantly, what Powell's take was on this perception of him as an outsider. What impact did his image as the "Reluctant Warrior" have on these developments? How did his being a highly decorated Black American general play out in a world of perhaps highly insecure White males who lacked the persona, charisma, and, more importantly, military pedigree that Powell possessed? These questions go unexplored.

It is for reasons such as these that this book falls short of meriting the Pulitzer Prize, of which at least one reviewer considered the author deserving. Powell is one of the most important political figures of the late 20th century. The idea that "Powell's career is simply not important or interesting enough for a full-dress biographical monument" as another reviewer suggests is curious at best. Not only is his career important enough, but Powell deserves the kind of indepth and intellectually rigorous biography as those written about Gen. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., J. Robert Oppenheimer, George Kennan, and Ralph Bunche. Still, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about Colin Powell, as well as to those interested in gaining better insight into the national and international world of realpolitik in which he labored for more than 40 years.