Newsman: Former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, died Monday morning due to complications from COVID-19. He was 84 years old and fully vaccinated.
His family said in a statement,
“He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment,” the family said. “We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.”
Peggy Cifrino, Colin Powell’s longtime spokesperson also confirmed to news media that Powell was fully vaccinated and scheduled to soon receive his third COVID booster shot and that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“Mrs. Powell tested positive for COVID too. Her symptoms were mild. She went to Walter Reed with the General. She was treated and went home. She was not admitted. She feels fine and is recovering. She had both of the Moderna vaccinations,” Cifrino said.
Peggy Cifrino also confirmed that Powell was successfully being treated for a few years for multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood cells, that compromises the immune system.
He was the first African American ever to hold that post and the first Black secretary of state.
Powell served under four presidents — Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — at the very top of the national security establishment, first as deputy national security adviser and then as national security adviser. Finally, he was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior ranking member of the U.S. armed forces and top military adviser to the president.
During his many decades in public life, time he helped shape American defense and foreign policy. He was in top posts during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the downsizing of the military after the end of the Cold War, the 1989 invasion of Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, the 1992-93 engagement in Somalia and crisis in Bosnia, and the Sept. 11 attacks and U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Bush said in a statement,”Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell. He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam. Many Presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience. He was National Security Adviser under President Reagan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under my father and President Clinton, and Secretary of State during my Administration. He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice. He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the first African American to head the Pentagon, reacting to the news, said he feels “as if I have a hole in my heart.”
“The world lost one of the greatest leaders that we have ever witnessed,” Austin told reporters on a trip to the nation of Georgia. “And I lost a tremendous personal friend and mentor.”
President Joe Biden also commended Powell as “a patriot of unmatched honor and dignity” and noted their long-standing relationship dating back to Biden’s time in the Senate.
“Colin embodied the highest ideals of both warrior and diplomat,” Biden said in a statement. “Colin led with his personal commitment to the democratic values that make our country strong. Time and again, he put country before self, before party, before all else—in uniform and out—and it earned him the universal respect of the American people.”
“Above all, Colin was my friend. Easy to share a laugh with, A trusted confidant in good and hard times. He could drive his Corvette Stingray like nobody’s business — something I learned firsthand on the racetrack when I was Vice President,” he wrote.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Powell’s career “legendary.”
“By the time he retired from military, he was arguably the most respected and celebrated American in uniform,” Blinken said in remarks from the State Department on Monday.
“I believe Secretary Powell’s years as a soldier are what made him such an exceptional diplomat. He knew that war and military action should always be a last resort, and to make that so, we need our diplomacy to be as robust and well-resourced as possible,” he said.
Powell spent his entire adult life in service to his country. He leaves behind his wife, Alma Powell, and his three children, Michael, Linda and Annemarie.
In 1995, Powell published his autobiography, “My American Journey,” in which he touched on everything from his military experiences to more personal matters. Powell was also a co-chair for America’s Promise, a non-profit organization geared toward empowering young people, for which he served as chairman from 1997-2000.
