WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Colin Powell, who served Democratic and Republican presidents in war and peace but whose sterling reputation suffered when he went before the U.N. and made faulty claims to justify the U.S. war in Iraq, has died of COVID-19 complications. He was 84.
In an announcement on social media, the family said Powell had been fully vaccinated.
“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father and grandfather and a great American,” the family said.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI: Former US President Jimmy Carter (R), former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell (C) and Sen. Sam Nunn arrive 24 February at the headquarters of the Multinational Force stationed in Port-au-Prince. Carter heads a delagation meeting with Haitian election officials about the upcoming legislative and local elections. (COLOR KEY: Sky is blue.) AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read THONY BELIZAIRE/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, : US Chief of Staff Colin Powell speaks at a luncheon hosted by the American Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 19 March 1991, Washington, DC. AFP PHOTO/Kevin LARKIN (Photo credit should read KEVIN LARKIN/AFP via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, : This file photo shows former US Army Lt. General Colin Powell (R),as he prepares to speak 05 November 1987 at the White House after former US President Ronald Reagan (L) announced Powell’s promotion to National Security Advisor. Powell was formally the no. 2 man on the National Security staff and the highest ranking African-American in the Reagan administration. AFP PHOTO/Chris WILKINS (Photo credit should read CHRIS WILKINS/AFP via Getty Images)
MCLEAN, VA – SEPTEMBER 16: Colin Powell speaks to the press on the first day of his tour 16 September at the Crown Books store in McLean, Virginia to promote his new book “My American Journey”. Powell would not give an answer when asked by reporters if he would consider running in the 1996 Presidential elections. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read JOYCE NALTCHAYAN/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. General Colin Powell, on a 24 hours visit in Somalia, leaves the military airport in an armoured car 04 April 1993. (Photo credit should read ERIC CABANIS/AFP/GettyImages)
US General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (L), presents General Ehud Barak, Chief of the General’s Staff Israel Defense Forces (R), with the Legion of Merit award, on January 14, 1993, during the ceremonies at the Pentagon. (Photo credit should read PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images)
US President-elect Bill Clinton (R) answers a question on November 19, 1992 while meeting for the first time with Gen. Colin Powel, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.
Powel has critizes Clinton’s pledge to end the ban on homosexuals the military. / AFP / Robert SULLIVAN (Photo credit should read ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 09: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks at the International Rescue Committee’s Annual Freedom Award benefit at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on November 9, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for IRC)
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 03: Former Secretaries of State (L-R) James Baker, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell participate in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the future U.S. Diplomacy Center at the State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building September 3, 2014 in Washington, DC. When completed, the Diplomacy Center will be a museum and education center that will ‘demonstrate the ways in which diplomacy matters now and has mattered throughout American history.’ (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 22: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) signs America’s Promise Summit Declaration which calls on all people “to help the youth of America reach their full potential,” at the White House September 22, 2014, in Washington, DC. Also pictured are President and CEO of America’s Promise Alliance John Gomberts (L), Chair of America’s Promise Alliance Alma Powell (2ndL), Former Secretary of State Colin Powell (3rd L), Former US Senator Harris Wofford (2nd R), and Special Project Assistant to the President at Be the Change, Deon Jones (R). (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 24: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell (L) greets disabled veteran Ted Strong at the 26th National Memorial Day Concert on May 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Capitol Concerts)
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 24: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell attends the 26th National Memorial Day Concert on May 24, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Capitol Concerts)
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 13: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks following a meeting with present and former national security leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House November 13, 2015 in Washington, DC. Obama met with the national security leaders on the national security implications of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade pact. Joining Obama at the meeting were Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State; James Baker, former Secretary of State; Bill Cohen, Former Secretary of Defense; Stephen Hadley, Former National Security Advisor; James Jones, General, Former National Security Advisor; Henry Kissinger, Former Secretary of State; Samuel Locklear, Admiral, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command; Mike Mullen, Admiral, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; Colin Powell, General, Former Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and National Security Advisor; Brent Scowcroft, Former National Security Advisor; James Winnefeld, Admiral, Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Vice President Joe Biden; Ash Carter, Secretary of Defense; Mike Froman, United States Trade Representative; Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement; Susan Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and Jeff Zients, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 04: Former Gen. Colin Powell (Ret.) onstage at A Capitol Fourth concert at the U.S. Capitol, West Lawn, on July 4, 2016 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Capital Concerts)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 10: Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell (R), stands up to kiss former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she spoke at a reception celebrating the completion of the U.S. Diplomacy Center Pavilion, at the State Department on January 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. The first floor of the pavilion was dedicated and named the Hillary Rodham Clinton Pavilion. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell leaves the National Cathedral at the close of the state funeral for former US President George H.W. Bush, December 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Edelman / AFP) (Photo credit should read ALEX EDELMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Peggy Cifrino, Powell’s longtime aide, said he had been treated over the past few years for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. The Powell family’s social media post did not address whether Powell had any underlying illnesses.
Multiple myeloma impairs the body’s ability to fight infection, and studies have shown that those cancer patients don’t get as much protection from the COVID-19 vaccines as healthier people.
Powell was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state.
Powell was one of America’s foremost Black figures for decades. He was named to senior posts by three Republican presidents and reached the top of the U.S. military as it was regaining its vigor after the trauma of the Vietnam War.
Powell, who was wounded in Vietnam, served as U.S. national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989. As a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which U.S.-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighboring Kuwait.
In 1989, Powell became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In that role, he oversaw the U.S. invasion of Panama and later the U.S. invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991.
Powell, a moderate Republican and a pragmatist, considered a bid to become the first Black president in 1996, but his wife Alma’s worries about his safety helped him decide otherwise.
Powell rose to national prominence under Republican presidents but ultimately moved away from the party. He endorsed Democrats in the last four presidential elections, starting with former President Barack Obama. He emerged as a vocal Donald Trump critic in recent years, describing Trump as “a national disgrace” who should have been removed from office through impeachment. Following the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, Powell said he no longer considers himself a Republican.
Powell was the first American official to publicly lay the blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and made a lightning trip to Pakistan in October 2001 to demand that then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf cooperate with the United States in going after the Afghanistan-based group, which also had a presence in Pakistan, where bin Laden was later killed.
But his reputation also suffered a painful setback when, in 2003, Powell went before the U.N. Security Council and made the case for U.S. war against Iraq. He cited faulty information claiming Saddam Hussein had secretly stashed away weapons of mass destruction. Iraq’s claims that it had not represented “a web of lies,” he told the world body.
Powell admitted later that the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the Bush administration and represented “a blot” that will “always be a part of my record”.
Powell maintained, in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, that on balance, U.S. succeeded in Iraq.
“I think we had a lot of successes,” Powell said. “Iraq’s terrible dictator is gone.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with the press shortly after the announcement, saying, “The world lost one of the greatest leaders we have ever witnessed.”
“I feel as if I have a hole in my heart,” Austin said Monday morning of his longtime mentor.
President Joe Biden issued a statement saying, “time and again, he put country before self, before party, before all else.”
“Colin embodied the highest ideals of both warrior and diplomat,” Biden said in part. “He was committed to our nation’s strength and security above all. Having fought in wars, he understood better than anyone that military might alone was not enough to maintain our peace and prosperity.”
Former President George W. Bush said he and former first lady Laura Bush were “deeply saddened” by Powell’s death.
“He was a great public servant” and “widely respected at home and abroad,” Bush said. “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.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called Powell a “historic leader.”
“General Colin Powell was a patriot: serving our country in uniform, leading at the highest levels of American government and blazing a trail for generations to come,” Pelosi said in a statement. “His leadership strengthened America and his life embodied the American Dream.”
“He lived the promise of America, and spent a lifetime working to help our country, especially our young people, live up to its own ideals and noblest aspirations at home and around the world,” Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a joint statement.