Colin Powell: soldier/statesman--statesman/soldier

The Story

Colin Powell is the first in-depth probing into the rise of a man who is arguably, says the author, the first African-American in a position of major national prominence that the general public - black, white, and Hispanic - is ready to judge on merit alone. Long a key figure in the upper echelons of government, Operation Desert Shield, and later Desert Storm, made General Powell a political and military luminary of the highest order, after which both national parties commenced courting him for future elections. Based on more than 120 interviews - including ones with General and Mrs. Powell, family members and colleagues from all stages of his career - General Powell emerges as the embodiment of the American Dream: the son of Jamaican immigrants, he rose from the hard life of the South Bronx to become the most talked about military leader since World War II, a man intimately involved with many of the nation's most dramatic events of the last thirty years. After serving two tours of duty in Vietnam, during which he earned a Soldier's Medal, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, General Powell was able to survive in the internecine warfare of official Washington. As National Security Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he has been a central figure in recent foreign affairs from the Reagan-Gorbachev summits to the Gulf War. Through it all, General Powell's popularity has crossed racial lines. 'He would have made it if his color was purple', says one who served with then Colonel Powell in Korea in the mid-Seventies. Colin Powell is a story of grit, drive, determination and talent. It is a classic account of an immigrant boy who succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of his parents.It is, uniquely and quintessentially, an American story.