General Colin L. Powell, USA - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/","20190220100639","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1550657199"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>General Colin L. Powell, USA - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content=""Our struggle will not be over until every American is able to find his or her own place in our society, limited only by his or her own ability and his or her own dream." In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, My American Journey, was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. General Powell was the first African American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="General Colin L. Powell, USA - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"Our struggle will not be over until every American is able to find his or her own place in our society, limited only by his or her own ability and his or her own dream."</p> <p class="inputText">In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, <i>My American Journey,</i> was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.</p> <p class="inputText">General Powell was the first African American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/powell-2-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">"Our struggle will not be over until every American is able to find his or her own place in our society, limited only by his or her own ability and his or her own dream."</p> <p class="inputText">In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, <i>My American Journey,</i> was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.</p> <p class="inputText">General Powell was the first African American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="General Colin L. Powell, USA - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/powell-2-Feature-Image.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190220100639\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190220100639\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190220100639\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/powell-2-Feature-Image.jpg [(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/powell-2-Feature-Image-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">General Colin L. Powell, USA</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Congressional Gold Medal</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3008 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-military-soldier"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/WhatItTakes_powell-256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">Built into each of us is a little calculator that can make judgments that will never appear on a piece of paper. And sometimes you know something's right, you can't prove it to anybody, or you know something's wrong. Little ethical circuit breakers you carry around inside...so I go with my instinct.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Soldier and Statesman</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> April 5, 1937 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body> <figure id="attachment_40354" style="width: 966px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-40354 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-40354 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="966" height="912" data-sizes="(max-width: 966px) 100vw, 966px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC.jpg 966w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC-380x359.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC-760x718.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Autumn 1954: Colin Powell in his ROTC uniform. Powell “found his calling when he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.” He graduated at the top of his class with the rank of cadet colonel, the highest rank in the corps.</figcaption></figure> <p>Colin Luther Powell was born in Harlem in 1937. His parents were Jamaican immigrants who stressed the importance of education and personal achievement. Powell grew up in the South Bronx, arethawhere he graduated from high school without having formed any definite ambition or direction in life. He entered the City College of New York to study geology, and it was there, by his own account, that he found his calling when he joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He became commander of his unit’s precision drill team and graduated in 1958 at the top of his ROTC class, with the rank of cadet colonel, the highest rank in the corps. Powell was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army, and was one of the 16,000 military advisors dispatched to South Vietnam by President Kennedy in 1962. In 1963, Lieutenant Powell was wounded by a punji-stick booby trap while patrolling the Vietnamese border with Laos.</p> <figure id="attachment_40355" style="width: 1491px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-40355 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-40355 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="1491" height="983" data-sizes="(max-width: 1491px) 100vw, 1491px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House.jpg 1491w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1972: Colin Powell, White House Fellow. As an Army Major, he was assigned to the Office of Management and Budget in the Nixon Administration and made a lasting impression on Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci, who worked as Director and Deputy Director of the OMB. Weinberger and Carlucci became Secretary of Defense.</figcaption></figure> <p>He was awarded the Purple Heart, and later that year, the Bronze Star. Powell served a second tour of duty in Vietnam in 1968-69. During this second tour he was injured in a helicopter crash. Despite his own injuries, he managed to rescue his comrades from the burning helicopter and was awarded the Soldier’s Medal. In all, he has received 11 military decorations, including the Legion of Merit. Powell earned an MBA at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and after being promoted to major, won a White House Fellowship. Powell was assigned to the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of President Nixon, and there he made a lasting impression on the director and the deputy director of the Office: Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci. Both of these men were to call on Powell when they served as Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor, respectively, under President Ronald Reagan.</p> <figure id="attachment_22756" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22756 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g.jpeg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22756 size-full lazyload" alt="February 8, 1985: Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger speaks with Army Major General Colin Powell during testimony before the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo)" width="600" height="396" data-sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g.jpeg 600w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g-380x251.jpeg 380w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g.jpeg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1985: Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger speaks with Major General Colin Powell during Capitol Hill testimony.</figcaption></figure> <p>Powell, now a colonel, followed his term as White House Fellow with service as a battalion commander in Korea and with a staff job at the Pentagon. After study at the Army War College, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade of the 101st Airborne Division. In the administration of President Jimmy Carter, Powell was an assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and to the Secretary of Energy. He was promoted to major general. He again assisted Frank Carlucci at the Defense Department during the transition from the administration of President Carter to that of President Ronald Reagan.</p> <figure id="attachment_22765" style="width: 1400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22765 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22765 size-full lazyload" alt="December 16, 1988: Colin Powell, during his time as National Security Advisor, accompanies President Reagan as he leaves the White House. (Barry Thumma/AP)" width="1400" height="787" data-sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508.jpg 1400w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508-380x214.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508-760x427.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1988: Colin Powell, as the National Security Advisor, accompanies President Reagan as he leaves the White House.</figcaption></figure> <p>Powell served as assistant commander and deputy commander of infantry divisions in Colorado and Kansas before returning to Washington to become senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, whom he assisted during the invasion of Grenada and the air strikes against Libya. Powell was called upon to testify before Congress in private session about the covert shipment of American arms to Iran; he was one of only five persons in the Pentagon who knew about the operation. Powell was not implicated in any wrongdoing in the matter.</p> <figure id="attachment_22809" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22809 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22809 size-full lazyload" alt="1991: Paul D. Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, right, takes notes while General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Central Command, listen to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney answer questions from the media. The men are taking part in a press conference held by U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials during Operation Desert Storm." width="2280" height="1518" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1991: Paul D. Wolfowitz, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, right, takes notes while General Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander-in-Chief, United States Central Command, listen to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney answer questions from the media. The men are taking part in a press conference held by United States and Saudi Arabian officials during Operation Desert Storm.</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1986, Powell left Washington to serve as commander of the Fifth Corps in Frankfurt, Germany, but was recalled to Washington to serve as deputy to Frank Carlucci, now the National Security Advisor. A year later, Carlucci was appointed Secretary of Defense, and Powell, now a lieutenant general, assumed Carlucci’s former post. As National Security Advisor, he coordinated technical and policy staff during President Reagan’s summit meetings with Soviet President Gorbachev. He was the first African American to serve in this position, as he has been in every office he has held since.</p> <figure id="attachment_27859" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-27859 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-27859 size-full lazyload" alt="General John M. Shalikashvili, USA, General David C. Jones, USAF, General and General Colin L. Powell, USA" width="2280" height="1530" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals-380x255.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals-760x510.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">At the 1998 Achievement Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, four Academy members and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: General John M. Shalikashvili, USA (the Academy’s Class of 1994), General David C. Jones, USAF (Class of 1979), General Henry (Hugh) Shelton, USA (Class of 1998) and General Colin L. Powell, USA (Class of 1988).</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1991, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H. W. Bush, Powell became a national figure during the successful Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations, which expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait. General Powell continued as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the first months of the Clinton administration, publicly disagreeing with President Clinton over the president’s plan to permit gay men and women to serve in the military, although he eventually accepted a compromise on the issue. Powell retired from the military shortly thereafter and returned to private life. In 1994, Powell joined former President Carter and Senator Sam Nunn on a last-minute peace-making expedition to Haiti, which resulted in the end of military rule and the peaceful return to power of the elected government of that country.</p> <figure id="attachment_22812" style="width: 1880px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22812 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22812 size-full lazyload" alt="April 4, 2002: Secretary of State Colin Powell looks on as President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House. (AP Photo/Doug Mills,File)" width="1880" height="1996" data-sizes="(max-width: 1880px) 100vw, 1880px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807.jpg 1880w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807-358x380.jpg 358w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807-716x760.jpg 716w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2002: Secretary of State Colin Powell looks on as President Bush makes a statement in White House Rose Garden.</figcaption></figure> <p>In his years of military service, General Powell never disclosed his political sympathies; he was registered to vote as an independent. Although he was known to have supported the 1964 campaign of President Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, he had served in both Republican and Democratic administrations. In the 1990s, the general’s great popularity led many people to urge him to run for president. In 1995, he announced that he had registered as a Republican, and he received a thunderous ovation when he spoke at the Republican convention the following year. Although he did not forswear future political involvement, he has declined to seek elective office.</p> <figure id="attachment_22813" style="width: 1746px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22813 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22813 size-full lazyload" width="1746" height="2048" data-sizes="(max-width: 1746px) 100vw, 1746px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un.jpg 1746w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un-324x380.jpg 324w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un-648x760.jpg 648w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">February 5, 2003: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial that he described as one that could contain anthrax during his presentation on Iraq to the UN Security Council in New York. Colin Powell tried to persuade a skeptical world that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and war might be necessary to disarm it.</figcaption></figure> <p>In 1997, he returned to his alma mater, the City College of New York, to open the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, offering high-achieving CCNY students the opportunity to prepare for careers in policy and public service. For the rest of the decade, he continued his work with young people as chairman of America’s Promise: the Alliance for Youth.</p> <figure id="attachment_5179" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-5179 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-5179 size-full lazyload" alt="General Colin Powell takes questions from the Summit's student delegates." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">General Powell takes questions from Academy student delegates at the 2010 International Achievement Summit.</figcaption></figure> <p>In 2001, newly elected President George W. Bush appointed Colin Powell to be Secretary of State. At the time, it was the highest rank ever held by an African American in the United States government. In his first months in office, Colin Powell won praise for his efficient administration of the State Department, and cordial relations with other governments. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Secretary Powell took a leading role in rallying America’s allies for military action in Afghanistan.</p> <figure id="attachment_22794" style="width: 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22794 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22794 size-full lazyload" alt="July 18, 2011: President Barack Obama hosts an education roundtable in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with business leaders and America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell, center, and Founding Chair General Colin Powell, left, to discuss what the business community can do to ensure we have a skilled, educated and competitive U.S. workforce. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)" width="1920" height="1280" data-sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366.jpg 1920w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2011: President Barack Obama hosts an education roundtable with business leaders and the America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell, and Founding Chair General Colin Powell, to discuss what the business community can do to ensure that we have a skilled, educated and competitive U.S. workforce. (Official White House/Pete Souza)</figcaption></figure> <p>It was reported that Powell had serious misgivings about President Bush’s subsequent plan to invade Iraq and topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, Powell appeared before the Security Council of the United Nations, where he presented evidence purporting to prove that Iraq had concealed an ongoing weapons development program, in violation of UN resolutions. Powell’s testimony was instrumental in persuading many members of the U.S. Congress to support military action against Iraq. Some of this evidence was later discredited, and when American forces found no evidence of a weapons program in Iraq, Secretary Powell was subjected to harsh criticism. Shortly after President Bush’s re-election in 2004, Powell stepped down as Secretary of State.</p> <figure id="attachment_51109" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-51109 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Academy_1849-powell-and-aretha-franklin-2012-Summit-DC.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-51109 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Academy_1849-powell-and-aretha-franklin-2012-Summit-DC.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Academy_1849-powell-and-aretha-franklin-2012-Summit-DC-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Academy_1849-powell-and-aretha-franklin-2012-Summit-DC-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Academy_1849-powell-and-aretha-franklin-2012-Summit-DC.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2012: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by Awards Council member General Colin Powell during her memorable musical performance to close the evening of the 50th annual Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies.</figcaption></figure> <p>Although he maintained a low public profile after his resignation, Colin Powell at times offered nuanced criticism of the conduct of the war in Iraq. He declined to endorse any Republican candidate for president in 2008. However, just weeks before the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012, he announced his support for the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. In 2016, in emails leaked by a hacker, Colin Powell offered unvarnished and highly negative opinions about both presidential nominees Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.</p> </body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1988 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.military-soldier">Military/Soldier</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> April 5, 1937 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">“Our struggle will not be over until every American is able to find his or her own place in our society, limited only by his or her own ability and his or her own dream.”</p> <p class="inputText">In 1995, when retired General Colin Powell took himself out of the running for President of the United States, he was leading every candidate in every poll. At the time, his autobiography, <i>My American Journey,</i> was a national bestseller. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his life story, from his boyhood in the South Bronx, through service in Vietnam, to his term as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.</p> <p class="inputText">General Powell was the first African American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking officer in the United States military. Most Americans got their first vivid impressions of General Powell in this role, at his televised press briefings during the Gulf War. His articulate, forthright manner and unassuming dignity made him a favorite of statesmen, journalists and the general public. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America’s foreign policy, and fourth in line of succession to the presidency itself. He served throughout the first term of the Bush administration, a period that included the September 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He remains one of the most admired Americans, a leader whose prestige transcends party and ideology.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTP-Gjpn4-k?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_07_08.Still005-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_07_08.Still005-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Soldier and Statesman</h2> <div class="sans-2">Jackson Hole, Wyoming</div> <div class="sans-2">May 23, 1998</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>(General Colin L. Powell was interviewed twice by the Academy of Achievement: In June of 1992, when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and again in May of 1998, two years prior to being named by President George Bush as Secretary of State.)<br/> </strong></p> <p><strong>What do you think are the most important documents of this century?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/0o_ijg6O6ZQ?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_18_52_15.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_18_52_15.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the First and Second Inaugural Addresses of Thomas Jefferson are my four favorite documents. The Emancipation Proclamation, and following that, the Gettysburg Address, which was essentially a restatement of the Constitution and the Declaration. But coming into this century and broadening it, I would just give you one that you’re going to find surprising, and that is the Helsinki Final Act, 1975, which was the Declaration of the Rights of Man. It was as a result of one of these international negotiations. President Ford, in one of the more historic acts of this century, but in one of the more underappreciated acts of this century, going against domestic political opposition, signed the Helsinki Final Act, which essentially said there are universal rights of men and women. In order to get the Soviets to also sign that, we had to make some accommodations with respect to we shouldn’t change borders. Some people said, “Aha! You’re validating Soviet occupation of the Eastern European countries.” Well, they were there. We didn’t validate them, we still argued against it. But I believe that getting the Soviets to agree to that was a poison pill that they took that helped bring about the end of the Cold War and the demise of this evil empire. Acknowledging that men and women, no matter where they are, no matter what government they are under, have certain universal rights.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>I go back to the Declaration, because that’s where we got it from: “All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” We sometimes forget the phrase that comes after that: “Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights.” That could set me off on a discussion of affirmative action and other things, as well as what happened after the Helsinki Final Act. But the role of government is to secure the universal rights of men and women.</p> <figure id="attachment_22811" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22811 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22811 size-full lazyload" alt="April 1989: General Colin L. Powell as the Commanding General of FORSCOM." width="2280" height="2850" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-304x380.jpg 304w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-608x760.jpg 608w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">April 1989: General Colin L. Powell, USA as the Commanding General of United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), the largest United States Army command and the provider of expeditionary, regionally engaged, campaign-capable land forces to combatant commanders. FORSCOM consists of more than 750,000 soldiers.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Does that include affirmative action?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Yes, in my judgment.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/t-6GJOU9la8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_25_12_05.Still013-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_25_12_05.Still013-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>The Declaration and the Constitution, which I consider just absolutely marvelous, profound documents. They didn’t apply to people who were black, and that’s the truth. In fact, the Constitution was used as a means of suppressing blacks. In the Dred Scott Decision, the Supreme Court said that a human being can be property if they’re black, and only if they’re black. You can’t be property if you’re white. If you’re black, you can be property and returned to an owner. That was done by the Supreme Court as a matter of constitutional law; they based it on the Constitution.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_25994" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-25994 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-25994 size-full lazyload" alt="Diane Sawyer and General Colin Powell" width="2280" height="1492" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002-760x497.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">On the head table at the American Academy of Achievement’s 1989 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in San Francisco: Awards Council members, eminent broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer and General Colin L. Powell, USA.</figcaption></figure> <p><em>Plessy vs. Fergusson,</em> in 1896, sanctioned separation on the basis of color. As long as you treat the races equally, then you can separate them. But the whole reason to separate them was to treat them unequally. It essentially validated Jim Crow segregation, disenfranchisement of an entire group of people who were black, giving them no economic opportunity. “Don’t educate them. Continue to treat them as tenth class citizens.” And it rested on the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, which was founded on the Constitution. And that continued up to my lifetime.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCkMbbZ-eG4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_02_27_15.Still003-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_02_27_15.Still003-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>So in 1963 when I came home from Vietnam, having served my nation, having sworn an oath to the Constitution to serve my nation, I came home and was denied access to restaurants and refused service in hotels and motels. If my skin was white, or if I could shine it up a little more than it is and put a hat on my head so my hair wasn’t showing, as long as I could prove I wasn’t black, then I was free to enjoy these benefits. The fact that I was a soldier of the nation was irrelevant. And this all rested on the Constitution, according to the courts. And according to some 30-odd presidents, and according to some 180 Congresses. This isn’t ancient history to me, this is my lifetime, my generation. I choose not to forget that we have this history. No one loves the Declaration or the Constitution more than me, but you have to see it in its correct perspective. And because it was so misused over those years, and it took us 200 years to get into the spirit that was intended by the Founding Fathers, even though they knew they couldn’t do it in practice at that time, even though it took us 200 years, we can’t ignore the legacy of that history that is still contaminating the present. I think tools such as affirmative action are useful to help us rub out, sand down this inequity that continues to haunt the present, that came from the past. Some say, “We don’t wallow around in old history.” Why not? We wallow around in the beauty of the Constitution and the Declaration, that’s old history. So let’s wallow around in all of it, as did the black people for all those years. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to use tools such as affirmative action and other similar tools.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22763" style="width: 2007px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22763 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22763 size-full lazyload" alt="1989: Colin and Alma Powell at the Academy of Achievement Summit in San Francisco, California." width="2007" height="1313" data-sizes="(max-width: 2007px) 100vw, 2007px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989.jpg 2007w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989-380x249.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989-760x497.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1989: General Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, at the American Academy of Achievement’s evening symposium and dinner at the historic Alcatraz Island during the 28th annual “Salute to Excellence” program in San Francisco.</figcaption></figure> <p>I consider all of these to be transitional tools and temporary tools, but they’re still necessary. And if anyone says they’re not necessary then let’s go visit some inner cities and look at 100 percent segregated schools in 1998. They’re segregated by race and class, and class and race are all mixed up. We’ve got to get every one of these children educated and into a college. Those who are able to go to college and want to go to college and can qualify for college. This isn’t for people who are not qualified. But give them that extra added advantage to get into universities, get them into the middle class and break the cycle, in that family, for that child, forever. That’s what will speed things up.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/QARxIBjCTEM?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_26_06_27.Still021-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_26_06_27.Still021-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/the-american-dream/">The American Dream</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>I was told the same thing in 1963 and ’64: “We don’t need a civil rights law. That’s wrong. It’s personal property. If they don’t want to serve blacks in a restaurant or on a public highway, so what?” So what? Put some shoe polish on your face and see what you think about it! This is a wonderful country. It was unthinkable for me to be Chairman when I came in the army 40 years ago next month. It would have been unthinkable for me to have said, “You’re going to be Chairman? Come on!” But it happened. And so, what will happen in one more generation? Maybe we’ll get rid of all of these residual problems. But we’re not going to get rid of them by just ignoring them or saying, “Gee, just do better,” or “It’s your fault.” We have to do better and to some extent we have to make sure our children don’t ignore what their forefathers did to get us to this point. Excellence in performance and high standards are important, but I think it’s also appropriate to use tools such as affirmative action to make sure all doors are open.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_40372" style="width: 3151px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-40372 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-and-wedding-day-side-by-side.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-40372 lazyload" alt="" width="3151" height="1008" data-sizes="(max-width: 3151px) 100vw, 3151px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-and-wedding-day-side-by-side.jpg 3151w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-and-wedding-day-side-by-side-380x122.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-and-wedding-day-side-by-side-760x243.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-and-wedding-day-side-by-side.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1962: Wedding day, Birmingham, Alabama. Powell’s parents are on the left, Alma’s parents on the right; 1972: Colin Powell receives the Legion of Merit from Major General Herbert McChrystal on Powell’s last day on the Army staff before becoming a White House Fellow. Alma Powell holds Annemarie, while Michael and Linda Powell look on.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>Between tours in Vietnam you were stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia, where you experienced the reality of segregation. Could you share some of those memories? What was not open to you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Fort Benning is a large Army installation in Columbus, Georgia. In those days, the ’50s, and well into the early ’60s, until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, and the Voting Rights Act of ’65, it was in the heart of the segregated South. On base it was wonderful. You could go anywhere, live anywhere, do anything you wished to do. But as soon as you went over the hill, and down into Columbus, Georgia, it was a totally segregated existence.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/QTDZ_yZZOb8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_10_18.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_10_18.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: The story I’ve told many times is of coming home from Vietnam in 1963, having been away for an entire year, and my wife had had a son while I was away. I was busy trying to get a home ready for my family in the area. I couldn’t get on base yet, the housing wasn’t available. So I found a place in Phoenix City, Alabama, which was not a great place to live as a black in those days.</p> <p>One night after working on the house, I tried to buy a hamburger at a drive-in place in Columbus. I knew I couldn’t go in, I didn’t try to go in. I just tried to order it on the little speaker box for it to be brought out. The young lady came out to take my order, the way it was done in those days, and she looked in the car and she asked me if I was Puerto Rican, and I said “No.” And then she asked me if I was an African student studying at the Infantry School. I said, “No, I’m not an African student studying at the Infantry School, I’m an American.” And she said, “I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t bring it out to the car. You’ll have to get out and go around to the back.” And I said, “Thank you very much, no thanks,” and I drove off. That wasn’t terrifying, it was just deeply, deeply hurtful and disappointing.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_40482" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-40482 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-40482 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1828" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1-380x305.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1-760x609.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/https://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Colin and Alma Powell are with Academy of Achievement’s Awards Council members Chuck Yeager, famed test pilot and member of the Aviation Hall of Fame, and Dinah Shore, singer and actress who was an inductee of the Television Hall of Fame. They are at a luncheon and symposium aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during the 1989 American Academy of Achievement Summit program in San Francisco, California. (Photo: Stanley Zax)</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>What effect did that experience have on your own resolve to achieve?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: If anything, it encouraged me, motivated me, caused me to find ways to demonstrate to people who held such beliefs that their beliefs had to be incorrect, had to be a lie.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/aOCRY1xsEnU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_42_20.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_08_42_20.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: There’s a great story from the Civil War, where a Confederate general is writing to the Confederate government in Richmond, and it has to do with the issue of allowing blacks to serve in the Confederate army, or conscripting them for the Confederate army. And this Confederate general writes to Jefferson Davis and he says, “Don’t let this happen. Whatever you do, don’t let this happen. Because if blacks can wear a uniform with brass buttons, and a belt with a brass buckle, and if they can go and serve and lay down their lives, they are the equal to us. And if that is the case, the whole theory of the Confederacy is a lie. So whatever you do, don’t let black men serve.” The history of the black experience in the United States military for 300 years is a repetition of that. Black men were always willing to serve, as were black women, in the hope that their service as equals, willing to lay down their lives, and fight for what their country believed in, would transfer over into civilian life. They were disappointed for most of our history. But with each conflict, things got a little bit better, until we finally reached the period where a black man, or a black woman, can rise to the top. So the answer to your question is, yes, it motivated me to fight back and to prove that if I’m your equal in performance, then segregation has to be a lie.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22780" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22780 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22780 size-full lazyload" alt="General Colin Powell and General Norman Schwarzkopf." width="2280" height="1527" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing-380x255.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing-760x509.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 1991: General Colin L. Powell, USA and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA at the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies, which concluded the American Academy of Achievement’s 1991 “Salute to Excellence” program.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>How did your service in Vietnam affect you, personally and professionally?</strong></p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/FX8SmXb-7Dg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_20_19_26.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_20_19_26.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/passion/">Passion</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: When I got orders to Vietnam in the summer of 1962, I was excited and very happy. I’d been selected by my government to go to a combat zone and to serve a purpose that was noble. And we were fighting communism, and we were going to try to help the South Vietnamese protect themselves from communism and defend their way of life, let them make their own choice as to how they should be governed. And so, it was a very noble undertaking and it was wrapped in the mystique of the Kennedy era. And I was one of the first group of advisors, actually the second group of advisors to go in, about 15,000 of us at that time. And so, for a young 25-year-old infantry captain this was it, this was the thing to do.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p>And so I went and did my job and I did it for a year. I came back after a year to rejoin a family that I really didn’t know, a son I’d never seen who was born while I was gone, and a wife who I’d known for nine months and been away from for a year. And going back to that, but also going back with a little bit of concern about Vietnam. Because I couldn’t see that we’d made much progress in the year I was there, tromping through the jungles. And the enemy seemed to have the initiative and the advantage.</p> <p>I came back thinking, “This is a very big problem, and it’s going to take a lot more than what we’re doing. And it’s not clear that the South Vietnamese are really up to the task, or really represent the kind of government that we should be that anxious to defend.” They had a lot of work to do, to prove themselves to their own people. And to prove themselves worthy of the kind of support that we were increasingly giving them.</p> <figure id="attachment_27857" style="width: 2213px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-27857 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-27857 lazyload" alt="Former Secretary of State James A. Baker and General Colin L. Powell, USA." width="2213" height="3300" data-sizes="(max-width: 2213px) 100vw, 2213px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker.jpg 2213w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker-255x380.jpg 255w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker-510x760.jpg 510w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Awards Council member and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA presents the Golden Plate Award to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III at the 1998 Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>How was your second tour in Vietnam different from the first?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: When I went back some five years later, a lot had changed. I had served with South Vietnamese soldiers. But it was now an American war and we were bringing all of American technology to bear. And I was now a major, not a captain, a little more senior. I’d also seen some terrible things happen in my own country in that five-year period. The assassination of President Kennedy, the death of Martin Luther King, riots, church bombings during the civil rights revolution.</p> <p>And 1968 was a terrible time in this country. A president who said he wasn’t going to run again, and the war had turned sour. And when I got back and spent another year there, we were applying American firepower and technology, but it wasn’t clear that we had moved any further along in recapturing the initiative or persuading the North Vietnamese that this is not a course they should pursue.</p> <p>They were determined to pursue it to the end and they would spend whatever number of lives it took to win. And it was a war they’d been fighting for 40 years. They understood what they were about, and they were prepared to make the supreme sacrifice. We no longer clearly understood what we were about, and we were losing hundreds of young men a week, but it was not clear that we were in it to prevail, or we could prevail.</p> <p>That was pretty much known by 1968/’69, and I came home in ’69, but it took us several more years to create the circumstances that we could get out and turn it over to the South Vietnamese.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/miO-8WVt4Zw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_17_00_15.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_17_00_15.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: And then I think in one of the sad chapters of American history, having promised the South Vietnamese that we would come to their assistance with more weapons and ammunition if they needed it, the United States Congress finally abandoned them. That went against our word. Whether they would have prevailed even if we hadn’t abandoned them is, I think questionable. I think they would probably have lost anyway, but I wish they had not lost on the heels of an American abandonment. So it was a very dismal period. And when it was all over, I was still a professional soldier, now a lieutenant colonel. And we were in an army that had been seen as the loser in this war. We were shaken to our core. We had lost a generation of leaders. We’d had the scandal of My Lai. We had racial relations. The American people said, “We want out of the draft. We no longer want to have a draft.” In fact, they were separating themselves from the army. “You just go out and recruit and that’s what you get. But no more draft.” So we ended the draft. There was an estrangement between the American people and its military. But I was a professional soldier, and so it was my job to work in that world and try to fix it, repair it. And one of the things I’m proudest of in my life is that over the next 15, 17 years, working with great leaders and finally with the new political leadership that came in with the Reagan Administration — political leaders who told us to be proud of ourselves once again and gave us the resources to really finish the transition to a modern, powerful army — we became a force that the nation once again was proud of. And we saw the result of that in Desert Storm.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_3657" style="width: 1680px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-3657 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-3657 size-full lazyload" alt="Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by Colin Powell and Academy delegates on the last night of the 50th annual Summit." width="1680" height="1118" data-sizes="(max-width: 1680px) 100vw, 1680px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846.jpg 1680w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2012: Awards Council member Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by General Colin Powell and Academy delegates during her performance that concluded the 50th annual Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in Washington.</figcaption></figure> <p><strong>We’d like to ask you about some of the qualities that you think go into your job. What role does your gut play, your instinct, when you’re making monumental decisions?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: You’re really going for the secrets now.</p> </body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/wRBPKf4A5eU?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_29_55_09.Still016-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Powell-Colin-1992-MasterEdit.00_29_55_09.Still016-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Colin Powell: One of my little rules is, you get all the facts you can. You get all of the analysis you can. You grind it up in your mental computer and then, when you have all the facts available to you, go with your instinct. I go with my instinct a great deal, but it is not just snap-go. You have to learn the technique of informing your instinct, of educating that little place down in your stomach where instinct resides, so that it is not blind instinct, but informed instinct. Built into each of us is a little calculator that can make judgments that will never appear on a piece of paper. And sometimes you just know something’s right — you can’t prove it to anybody — or you know something’s wrong. Little ethical circuit breakers you carry around inside of you, or little right and wrong circuit breakers you carry around inside of you. So, I go with my instinct a great deal.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_22783" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-22783 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-22783 size-full lazyload" alt="September 3, 2014: Secretary of State John Kerry (R) is joined by former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton (C) and Colin Powell during the ceremonial groundbreaking for the future U.S. Diplomacy Center at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, D.C. 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." (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1.jpg 2280w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190220100639/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">September 3, 2014: Secretary of State John Kerry is joined by former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell during the ceremonial groundbreaking for the future U.S. Diplomacy Center at the State Department in Washington, D.C. When completed, the U.S. 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.” (Getty)</figcaption></figure> </body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You’ve talked about a sense of estrangement between the armed forces and American public after Vietnam. How did you deal with that?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Well, we just dealt with it. We just said, “We will not allow ourselves to be broken. We will not allow ourselves to be abandoned by the people. We will demonstrate our worthiness. We will go back to our traditions. We will go back to our history, we’ll gain inspiration from our past, and we will reshape ourselves for a new future.”</p> <p>We got rid of some of the touchy-feely things that we were experimenting with and we went back to discipline, structure. You are serving the nation, even though sometimes the nation doesn’t appreciate it, that’s all right. They will when the next conflict comes along. We just went back to basics: structure, discipline, patriotism, pride. Developed the best equipment in the world. Showed our troops that if they go into battle they’ll be taken care of and their leaders won’t abandon them.</p> <p>A whole generation of senior officers came up, including me, General Schwarzkopf and many others, who having gone through Vietnam were committed to the proposition that if we ever have to face something like that again, as the senior officers it is our responsibility to work with our political leaders and if necessary push our political leaders to make sure that they understand what they’re getting into, and have they made the right political decisions? And they’re the ones to determine, you know, what the right political decisions are.</p> <p>But we felt it was our responsibility to lay out the consequences of the use of military force. And I think all that came together in the Bush Administration — the Reagan and Bush Administrations — but especially in the Bush Administration.</p> <p>When we faced conflicts in Panama and in Desert Storm and in the Gulf War, where President Bush and his political leaders working with him, Secretary Baker — Jim Baker — and Secretary Dick Cheney, came up with clear political guidance and then supervised us very carefully. It wasn’t just, “Okay, here’s the guidance, you military folks just tell us what you need and you get it.” We had to explain to our political leaders and justify to our political leaders what we needed and why we were going to do things the way we recommended to them. And they challenged us, made sure that they were satisfied that we had thought it all through and then they let us do the job. They turned us loose. That was quite a renaissance.</p> <p>It really began after Panama. In Panama they saw a professional army at work again. It was a short conflict. We restored a democratically elected president and got rid of a tyrant. People saw that said, “Look at that. That’s pretty good.” A year-and-a-half later we did Desert Storm and they saw it again and there was a great outpouring of support. People were surprised, frankly.</p> <p><strong>You were wounded on your first tour in Vietnam, weren’t you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Yes. There was a punji stick on my first tour. I was a young infantry captain, as I mentioned, and I was going through the jungle with my Vietnamese battalion, just myself, one other American and just myself and we essentially lived in the jungle. And we were heading to the Special Forces camp, American Special Forces camp one day to come out for a little while.</p> <p>The Vietcong, the communist enemy, would place these traps, nothing more than a hole in the ground, a couple of feet deep with bamboo spikes planted in them, just like out of a Tarzan movie. They would cover the spikes with a little bit of buffalo dung, making sure they were quite infectious, and then just put something over it to cover its presence. Usually we knew how to spot these, but that day I just didn’t. I stepped off the side of the trail, and stepped into it. My right foot went down into it and one of the spikes caught the edge of my foot. The sole of my boot missed it and it caught the instep, went all the way through. Of course, I felt it rather immediately and jerked my foot out, which pulled it right back out.</p> <p>It was so quick, I didn’t realize how injured I was. I just knew that I’d punctured my foot. I didn’t realize how serious it was, so I didn’t want to say anything. We just kept marching towards the Special Force camp. In about 15 minutes I realized that I had done something real bad. In about 30 minutes I was having difficulty walking and had to use a stick. Fortunately, we were close to the camp and I was able to get there. The Special Forces medics cut my boot off and they could see my foot was purple by then. The spike had gone all the way through, from the bottom to the top, and then come right back out, totally infecting the wound as it made the wound.</p> <p>They got me out of there and I went to division headquarters; there was a doctor there. It wasn’t anything that required anesthesia; they used a rather straightforward method of disinfectant. They put a cloth through the bottom of my foot. Used a probe to push it through the top, put antibiotics over it and cleaned it out, kind of like a shoe shine rag, which was not a terribly pleasant experience. When they had a clean section in there, they just cut off both sides and left it in there for about a week to fight the infection. A week later I was pretty much okay.</p> <p><strong>What other experiences do you recall that were important to you in Vietnam? You were wounded again on the second tour of duty.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: I remember crashing in a helicopter and getting all wrapped around trees in the jungle. That’s certainly memorable. I was the operations officer of an infantry division, the American Division, and one day we were out with the commanding general and the chief of staff going to visit a unit that had just discovered a North Vietnamese arms cache. It was in the deep, triple-canopy jungle, near the Laotian border. The only way to get into the site was to fly over the canopy and look for the opening that had been cut by the troops who were in the jungle. They had cut a hole just big enough for a helicopter to literally come down through the opening like an elevator.</p> <p>We were hovering over this opening as the pilot examined it, and then he started his descent. He was the commanding general’s pilot, and he hadn’t been into places like this as often as some of the other pilots, who might have been less experienced, but who had more experience in going up and down in this canopy. For whatever reason, as he started down, he lost a little bit of control and the helicopter shifted to the right and then it shifted to the left, and to this day, sitting in the left-hand seat in the rear I could see the blade hit the tree, and suddenly go from moving very rapidly — which is what keeps you in the air — to stopping instantly, which converts you from a helicopter into a falling object, more like a rock. And so, we fell about a hundred feet or so and hit hard. Stumps all over the place, and the helicopter started breaking apart, engine coming down through the passenger compartment, engine still turning, broken blades spinning, cockpit area crashed, or smashed up, and the danger of a fire.</p> <p>I knew I was hurt, but not too badly, so I unbuckled, ran out, looked back and saw that the general was still inside. Went in and helped him out, helped some others out. And then it started to smoke, but it wasn’t burning. And then I and another young soldier went back and I thought the pilot was seriously injured, his back was. The general’s aide was in the middle of the passenger compartment and the whole engine had come down through the passenger compartment and smashed his head into the radio console and I thought he was dead, because he had an engine on his head. But when I went back in to start pulling the body out, it was clear that his — I heard a noise, a slight movement, so he was alive.</p> <p>His helmet had been smashed, but it had protected him enough from fatal injury. So we got him out and he was walking around about two days later. That was memorable, you don’t forget that too often. I broke my ankle and some other things, but they were minor.</p> <p><strong>So when you were growing up in the South Bronx, you never imagined you’d be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: I never dreamed of it.</p> <p><strong>What were you dreaming of back then? What were your goals?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: It’s something of an embarrassing question for me, because I try to reflect back 45 years to those days. I’m not sure I had very clear goals, and they certainly weren’t any long-range goals. I was a kid playing in the street. I wanted to grow up and be healthy. I wanted to excel at whatever I did. I wasn’t a great student. I hoped I was learning enough in school to make me successful in whatever life held for me. Even when I got into college it wasn’t clear what I was doing in college. Going to college was something that was expected in my family.</p> <p>I suspect if it hadn’t been for my family influence, and pressure of my parents, and the expectation of my parents that I would go to college, I probably wouldn’t have gone. But there was that expectation. My sister had gone, the relatives had gone. And so, that got me into college.</p> <p><strong>How many brothers and sisters did you have?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: I have one sister. She’s five-and-a-half years older. She was sort of the star of the family; I was kind of the runt, the kid who was worried about a lot. Marilyn was always the good one and she did well in school and I didn’t, and there was no doubt about where she was going to go, to college. And after college she’d be successful as a teacher. I was always a question mark in the family. She subsequently went into teaching, had a wonderful 40-year career as a teacher.</p> <p><strong>Where did your parents come from, and how were they important to you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: My parents were Jamaican immigrants; they came from the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean. They came to the United States in the early 1920s. They came separately, didn’t know each other there. They came to improve their lot. The economic situation in Jamaica at that time caused a lot of people to come to the United States, looking for a better life.</p> <p>They met, they fell in love, were married, and then they had two children. My sister Marilyn and, of course, me. They’re very important in our lives — my sister’s life and mine — for the love they gave us, for the structure they provided and just for the inspiration that they gave to us, in the way they lived their lives.</p> <p>I’ve told many, many audiences of both parents and young people, but mostly parents — children don’t listen to what you tell them, they don’t listen to the lectures. Well, they listen, patiently. What they really respond to, what they really do, is watch how you live your life, watch how you exercise your values. If they see worth in that, if they see merit in the way you are living your life, that’s what influences children. I saw a great merit in the way my parents lived their life, and I never wished to displease them. I always wanted them to be proud of me. The worst days of my life were not when I got a spanking, but when I did something that disappointed my mother and my father.</p> <p><strong>Were they able to see your great success? Did they live to appreciate that?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Not really. My father died a year before I made brigadier general. So he saw me rise to the rank of Colonel. My mother was at my promotion ceremony to brigadier general and she was enormously pleased. She died in 1984, before all of the excitement of the last years came about.</p> <p><strong>What books especially inspired you as a kid? Do you remember any in particular?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: No. You’re dragging something out of me that my wife and children go nuts trying to cover up. And that is, I was not a terribly good student. I did not read a great deal when I was a youngster. The streets were a greater attraction to me in New York than was the New York Public Library system, or staying in my room reading anything but comic books.</p> <p>I read what I was required to read by the public school system of the City of New York, and children’s books. But I didn’t really become an avid reader until I was an adult. I initially saw reading as something one had to do. It was only when I became an adult that I realized what a joy there was in reading, in learning, and what knowledge existed in books, and magazines, and newspapers. Now I’m constantly reading.</p> <p><strong>I understand you spent a lot of time at the Tiffany Theater, as well.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: The old Tiffany Theater was one of those theaters that every inner-city neighborhood had in those days, every few blocks apart. It was the place we all went to on Saturdays. I don’t even know if it was open during the rest of the week, but on Saturday it was open for all of us kids. With your grubby little hand clutching a dirty quarter, and with whatever food was necessary to last you for the rest of the day, you went to the Tiffany, and watched cowboy movie after cowboy movie, and threw things at each other, and generally misbehaved, I expect.</p> <p><strong>It sounds like a lot of fun.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: It was.</p> <p><strong>When did you first become interested in a military career?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: It was only once I was in college, about six months into college when I found something that I liked, and that was ROTC, Reserve Officer Training Corps in the military. And I not only liked it, but I was pretty good at it. That’s what you really have to look for in life, something that you like, and something that you think you’re pretty good at. And if you can put those two things together, then you’re on the right track, and just drive on. Once you’ve got something that you like, something you’re good at, then do it for all it’s worth. Be the very best you can be. Let nothing deter you, let nothing stand in your way, and go for it.</p> <p><strong>What was it about ROTC that attracted you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Perhaps the structure, perhaps the discipline, the sense of camaraderie among a group of young men who were similarly motivated. Maybe it was just the uniform. Who knows? I was only a little over 17 years old at the time.</p> <p>I also grew up during a period of war. World War II occupied several years of my life. And as I entered my teenage years, the Korean War came along. So, by the time I was 17 years old, I’d seen about seven or eight years of war. As any young child would, I studied the tanks, and the planes and the guns. There was a fascination with all that. And I suspect that also moved me in the direction. But I think it was the structure, the discipline, the sense of camaraderie, the sense of adventure associated with being in the military.</p> <p><strong>You’ve stated that you would like to see some of the spirit of togetherness and family that you feel in the military right now spread to the rest of the population.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: I talk about family a great deal. There’s nothing like going out to a military unit, whether it’s Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard, and seeing young men and women, usually in their late teens or early twenties, working together. And the closer they are to danger, the more closely they work together, and the more they become a family. Because they recognize that, if my life depends on you, all I care about is your ability to perform, and your willingness to sacrifice for me.</p> <p>When you finally get up into the front lines, or into the cockpits of our fighter planes and somebody is flying wing for somebody else, that’s all that counts. I don’t care what color you are. I don’t care where your parents come from. Can you perform? I will take care of you, you will take care of me, we will sacrifice for one another. That’s what keeps a military unit bonded together; it isn’t discipline.</p> <p>Discipline isn’t what causes men to go into the face of enemy fire, it’s counting on one another, and serving one another, and loving one another as family members. We saw that again in Desert Storm. It was a real hit for the nation to see these young folks out in the desert. They’re not supposed to be like this, they’re supposed to be druggies, they’re supposed to be troublesome, they’re supposed to be violence-prone, they’re supposed to be uneducable. And here they were in the desert, smart as tacks, patriotic, clean, drug-free, working together in teams, as family members.</p> <p>I’m so proud of that, that I say to many audiences, you’ve got to capture that somehow. I know that the inner city of Los Angeles or New York is not an infantry battalion. But somehow, the lessons of an infantry battalion have to be brought back to the nation.</p> <p><strong>It’s very interesting also that it was a volunteer army.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: All volunteers. And every one of them doing it willingly, every one of them proud, nobody there against their will.</p> <p><strong>You have expressed so much faith in the American people. Coming from the background that you just described at Fort Benning, it is especially touching that you have such a powerful faith. Where does that faith come from?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: It is a very powerful faith. It just comes from many, many years of watching this country deal with problems. Watching this country go through crisis after crisis. And always being amazed at the resilience that comes out of the heartland of the country, out of the people of the United States. I’m always of the view that no matter what crisis we are going through, whether it’s a political crisis, or an economic crisis, in due course, either through an election, or through some other manifestation, the American people make their will known. That will is almost universally a will based on what’s right, based on honesty, based on goodness. So, I am as corny as you can be on that subject. But it is the deepest element of my national faith.</p> <p><strong>You’re talking to a young man or woman who is kind of interested in the military, not sure. What advice could you give to such a young person? What are the qualities that make for a fine military career?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: You have to be willing to work very hard. It is not a soft life, it’s a difficult life. It’s a life of sacrifice, it’s a life of service. That’s why we call it service. You have to be ready for that. You have to be prepared to subject yourself to discipline and a certain structure, unlike anything in civilian life. Make sure you’re ready for that. You’ve got to like it. You simply have to love being a soldier, or a sailor, or an airman, or marine.</p> <p>If you’re not sure, go ahead and try it for a while. It’s a volunteer organization; you can get out. Many young people do get out. In fact, most of them do get out. The surprising thing is that as they get close to getting out, when they know they’re getting out, they start counting the days down. “Oh, I’m out of here, I’m out of here, I’m out of here.” But then they get out, and six months or a year later, they remember their military experience with great fondness, most of them.</p> <p>One of the nicest parts of my job is hearing from veterans of the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, World War II, occasionally even an old World War I veteran. They always tell me about their outfit or their general or, “I was with Patton.” They have very powerful memories and pleasant memories of their experience in the military.</p> <p>I encourage people, if you’re not sure what you want to do, and you’re interested in things military, go try it for a few years, it will grow you up. And then you can stay, or you can get on with a new phase of your life. But you’ll be ready for that new phase of your life in a better way, I think, if you’ve had the military experience.</p> <p>Lots of people in Congress right now and elsewhere are coming to us saying, “You’ve got to do something. You’ve got to get all these kids off the street. Take them into the Army, open CCC camps,” do this and do that, in order to give young people the structure, the sense of service, so they can go on and be good citizens in other fields and endeavors.</p> <p><strong>Does that make sense to you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: To some extent. I’m also a great constitutionalist. I believe that the military exists to protect the nation against enemies, foreign and domestic, to fight wars, and not be a social service agency. I’m a little concerned that there are those who, having failed to deal with the problem in our communities by community leadership, are going to try to put the problem squarely on the backs of the military. I’m not sure that’s the proper role for the military in a democratic society.</p> <p><strong>Can we talk about teamwork, being a team player? That seems very important to you.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: In my view it is extremely important. A team means up, down and sideways. I’m a great believer in loyalty to the person I work for. If you take the King’s shilling, you do the King’s work. And so, loyalty upward is a very important trait for me. Loyalty downward, to those who are doing it for you. And loyalty to the people you’re working side by side with.</p> <p><strong>What about luck, has that played any part in your career?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Sure. But I don’t view luck as being a completely random event. Luck tends to come to people who are prepared. You’re lucky you got the job? No, you’re not. You’re lucky that somebody knew how good you were. You were lucky that somebody became aware of the talent you offered to the position, that’s the luck. The luck isn’t you got it because you were unprepared, or unqualified. Luck has played an important role in my life over the years, but luck won’t do it by itself.</p> <p><strong>Did you find there were skills you’d learned on the battlefield that helped you out in Washington?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Well, Washington is a battlefield in and all its own. As you become more senior in the military, you really do have to have an understanding – to be successful – of how the political process works and how to deal with public relations, and how to convey the story of the armed forces to the American people. The political process and the media are two things you really do have to master. Not because you want to be a spinmeister, but because the political process is how the country runs, that’s how democracies run. So you have to know how to go up and testify on Capitol Hill and satisfy members of the House and Senate as to how you’re planning to spend the money which the Constitution gives them the authority to appropriate every year. You’ve got to do it every year, whether you like it or not. You have to expect to be punched around a little bit, challenged. You have to expect people will want to spend less money than you want. And you have to expect to hear parochial constituent interest from individual congressman, because that’s why they were elected, to represent parochial constituent interests. And that’s all part of the process. You have to understand that the media is out to find anything about you that you don’t want them to know. That’s their role in the democracy. They are the fourth estate. And your responsibility is to tell the American people as much as you can about what you’re doing with their sons and daughters and their money. But you’re also supposed to protect their sons and daughters, and so there may be things you don’t want to tell the media. And so there’s this great contest that takes place, but it’s a healthy contest. Any senior general or admiral who doesn’t understand that you have to do this isn’t going to be very successful. You can’t just rant and rave at the political process, or be mad because <em>The Washington Post</em> or <em>The New York Times</em> said something unpleasant about you that day. You’ve just got to keep doing your job to the best of your ability. To some extent, it’s war in a different way. Politics is war, without bullets and shells — usually.</p> <p><strong>You’ve talked about some of the ills in society that trouble you, particularly homelessness, poverty, lack of education, racism. What specific things can young people do to try and eradicate some of those horrors?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: First and foremost for young people is to commit themselves to something, and to realize there is an alternative to going down the negative path. You don’t have to do drugs. I don’t care what your friends are doing. I don’t care what your older brother might have done. I don’t care where you came from. I don’t care about the fact that you had a broken family, or this was wrong in your life, or that was wrong in your life. I don’t care about any of that.</p> <p>You are a human being, with a brain and conscience of your own. You know what’s right or wrong. And you have to do the best you can with what you have. So, don’t let any of these negative elements in your background be an excuse.</p> <p>You can climb out of it; other people have climbed out of it. And therefore, commit yourself to climbing out of it. Set a goal for yourself. Don’t make it, “I’m going to be a general,” or “I’m going to be the President of the United States.” I’m going to finish school. I am going to get through this week without doing drugs. I don’t care what my buddy down the street tries to make me do, it isn’t going to happen. I am not going to get involved in violence. I am not going to allow peer pressure to force me to do something that those little fuses in my stomach tell me I should not be doing.</p> <p><strong>A lot of young people seem to feel a lack of control of their lives. And that’s one of the reasons that they get into these desperate situations. They feel that they’re somehow out of control.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: We do need to help them. It isn’t just a matter of, you’re on your own, young man/young lady. We need to give young people structure in their lives, discipline, give them a life space, put boundaries on them. And those boundaries, hopefully, will come from parents; or at least one parent, if both parents are not there.</p> <p>They also have to come from school, they have to come from churches, they have to come from the community in general. There can be no organized behavior, there can be no progress without structure to the environment. It worked for my kids, and we’re working on a grandson now. As they start to get about, they want to know where the boundaries are. They want to know when they run into a wall.</p> <p>Set the four walls up, and there will be a joy for everybody inside those four walls. When they don’t know where the walls are, and they’re constantly testing, you’ve got a problem, you’ve got an out-of-control situation. I think that applies not only to infants, but to all young people, until that point in their life where they can set their own walls up.</p> <p>I’ve started to dedicate large parts of my time to working on the problems of America’s young people. It has become my goal in life. Most of them are doing just fine, but we have millions of them who are not. We have millions of them who wonder if they’ll ever survive past the age of 18 without having a bullet put in their back.</p> <p>I’ve been to places in America, in one city in particular, where a teacher was telling me that the children come back on Monday morning weighing less than they did when they went home on Friday afternoon. They don’t get proper nutrition, there’s nobody really taking care of them. So there’s a hole in their life for two days until they come back to school and start eating again. And that’s in America.</p> <p>There are a lot of children in need, so I’ve started to work on that with the United Negro College Fund and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, I’m on the boards of those and a number of others. But the principal activity is through the chairmanship of America’s Promise, the Alliance for Youth, where we’re making promises to young people, we’re creating alliances between the government, the private sector, the public sector to bring more resources in the lives of these children who are sometimes without hope. More mentors, safer places for them to learn and grow. Give them all a healthy start in life with vaccinations and proper nutrition and education against drugs and cigarettes.</p> <p>A marketable skill for a youngster is as the economy goes upscale and the skill level goes upscale as the result of the information and technology revolutions. And finally, we’re also trying to persuade youngsters to serve their community, and to begin that service as early as possible. Put service to others into their heart as a virtue.</p> <p>So, America’s Promise is taking most of my time. And we’ve got the symbol of this little red wagon that you see here, which we picked as a perfect symbol of a nostalgic childhood. Every boy and girl ought to have a little red wagon that can pull along a kid brother, a kid sister, a heavy load, a dream. A little red wagon that one day could be a rocket ship, or another day it could be an ocean liner, but it’s there to help you make your way through life. And it comes with a nice long black handle, so that an adult can reach down, grab it and help you. That’s the symbol of America’s Promise. I’m trying to make sure that every child in America has a little red wagon.</p> <p><strong>I was just reading about America’s Promise and there was a line in there that struck me, something about the era of the big citizen just beginning. What do you mean by that?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: We can’t just sit around waiting for government to solve some of these intractable social problems that we’ve had for years. Government has a role to play. It is time for all of us to live up more fully to the concept of citizenship. And for those of us who as citizens of this nation have been blessed with treasure, and wealth, and good position, and comfortable homes, and all the blessings of this land, to be a good citizen, to be a big citizen, requires you to do more in the way of sharing with those who are in need. So that a family that has three wonderful children ought to try to see if they could find three hours a week to share that life with a kid in need who doesn’t have a mentor, who doesn’t get to play in Little League and do the other things that we take for granted. Somebody in that family who might go tutor a school on an afternoon off from a job, and we’re encouraging corporations to give them that afternoon off. And so that’s what we mean by big citizenship.</p> <p>Get involved with your local Boys and Girls Club, your scouting program, your YMCA program, your tutoring program, your mentoring program. Give more money to charities of your choice. But do more to share what you have gained from this country with others. Do it in a way where you’re actually giving up something of yourself. What you usually get back in return is very, very warm and very, very rewarding. You feel good about what you’ve done; it makes you a better person. That’s what the era of big citizenship is all about.</p> <p><strong>Your own career seems to have been an extraordinarily smooth path to the position you’re in today, but I’m sure there were some disappointments along the way — setbacks.</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: No one has a perfect Army career that goes up non-stop without plateaus or even downturns. I’ve had problems in my career, I’ve had downturns. I’ve had people who thought I wasn’t very good, and said so in writing. I’ve had assignments that didn’t come along when I thought they should have come along. There have been several times in my career where I thought I had reached as high a level as I was going to reach, and had started to make alternative plans, when suddenly luck came along, and things changed, and so it just kept going.</p> <p><strong>What was the toughest part of your job as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Making a recommendation to the President to use military force, knowing that he will act on your advice, and that people will die — both the young men and women you send in to do it, and the young men and women that they will kill on the other side. In the hours before you provide the advice, you are constantly searching your mind. “What did I forget? Is there something I could have done differently? Is there some way to get out of this? Is there some other way to do this? Have I got the right plan? Is it all glued together?”</p> <p>Then you give your advice, you give your recommendation, and you spend the next several hours saying, “What did I forget? What could I have done differently? Is this going to work? Am I sure I was right?” You’re never totally sure, but you did the best you can. And then you wait, and you wait, and you sit in that command center, as I did the night we invaded Panama, watching as the paratroopers and rangers jumped. Sweating out icing conditions at our airfields, and our planes having difficulty taking off.</p> <p>You wait to hear the first reports of the battle. And you wait to hear what you know is going to happen, the first casualty numbers start to come in: Four KA, then it’s six, then it’s eight, then it’s ten killed in action. Then it’s 12, then it’s 15, it’s 20. I didn’t think casualties would be high in Panama, I was expecting a 22. Just a mental note, there’s no analysis, it’s what I thought, and it came out about 24. Same thing with Desert Storm. You just sit and wait for the first report that somebody’s been shot down. Does he make it? Does he get his ejection seat activated?</p> <p>Or terrible moments when one of our C-130 airplanes get shot down. That’s a slow, low-flying four-engine prop plane that has guns in it. It’s a gun ship, and it literally flies at a slight bank and shoots down on the enemy. It’s a very vulnerable airplane, but it’s pretty good when it’s used correctly. The best way to use it is at night, because it’s very vulnerable in the day. You form a pattern after a while the enemy can watch. So one morning I got a report that a C-130 had stayed on station after dawn and got caught. When you have one of those shot down, it isn’t a single pilot, it’s about 20 guys. So wham, 20 guys are gone.</p> <p>That just kicks you. And you say, “What were they doing up there after dawn?” And you start to go through the recriminations. We know better. Or the Iraqis get a lucky strike with a Scud, and of all the places a Scud could hit — in the middle of the Saudi desert, an empty parking lot, maybe it hits a single jeep and kills one person — but suddenly a Scud comes in — a very inaccurate weapon — the Patriots don’t throw it off course or knock it down. And where does it hit? It hits right in the barracks complex. New troops just arrived, all jammed up in a single place. And you lose several dozen, all at once. And there’s nothing you could have done about it. That’s hard, and you know those things are going to happen. Or you get a call one morning that we bombed a complex overnight, an Iraqi bunker that we thought was a command and control bunker. Turned out it was a command and control bunker, it was a military installation. But what we didn’t know was they packed it with civilians. Maybe the civilians went there for protection, but it was the worst place to go for protection. We weren’t bombing their neighborhoods, we were bombing their bunkers. But that’s where 300 civilians were. So there you are, faced with, “You terrible people! You’ve killed several hundred innocent civilians!” And you have to work your way through that and not get thrown off your game plan. You have to make adjustments. But it’s those kinds of life and death problems that come along that are the most difficult to deal with. And the ones that you think about the most. But you can’t linger on them, because there’s a new life and death problem the next moment.</p> <p><strong>What’s most satisfying about the job, most rewarding?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Accomplishing a mission in the way that you had hoped to accomplish it. It satisfies the objectives that the President had established, and it went well. There’s both the exhilaration of success and victory, but also, for a professional soldier, there’s a sense of satisfaction that all of your 30-odd years of training have brought you to this point.</p> <p>Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or General Schwarzkopf’s job, is not an entry-level position. You have 33 years of experience and you’re supposed to know what you’re doing. And when it goes well, when it works right, then you have a validation of what you’ve done for your whole professional life. It’s the Super Bowl. I hate to give it a sports analogy, but to some extent it’s the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize. It’s the capstone of your professional life. So there’s a great deal of satisfaction when you do it well, but never without feelings for those who were lost. You’ve heard the old expression, “It’s a good thing war is so terrible, or we might enjoy it too much.” And that’s pretty true.</p> <p>The other day I was giving a speech in Phoenix and just before the speech there was a reception and people were patting me on the back, “Oh gee, you’re terrific.” You’re this, you’re that. “Desert Storm was great!” and you know, “Thank you very much.” And a woman came up and identified herself and said that she’d lost her brother in Desert Storm, and so we talked about that. And she just kept looking in my eyes and I kept saying, you know, “He served proudly. I knew the unit he was in, although I didn’t know him. And I’m sorry he was lost, I wish we didn’t lose anybody, but that’s what war’s about.” And she understood and she started crying and I started tearing up and we hugged a bit. And so, you know, if I could bring any one of those soldiers back I would, but I can’t.</p> <p>Wars are to be avoided, but when they have to be fought, fight them well and get them over with quickly. With all the exhilaration and joy that comes from victory and success, don’t ever forget the price that was paid for it.</p> <p><strong>What are you most proud of, General, that you’ve accomplished in this career?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Proud that I believe I have the respect of my fellow soldiers. And by soldiers, I mean all the members of the armed forces that I served with. No medal, no nice introduction, no awards could substitute just for the knowledge I have that I’m reasonably well respected by my fellow soldiers. If I didn’t have that, I would have considered this to be a busted career.</p> <p><strong>Desert Storm must have been a great feeling of victory for you. When did it seem to you that we were more or less home free, as it were?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: Once we really started the second phase of the build-up, I never had any doubt about the outcome. It was clear that we would be successful, and be successful more rapidly and with fewer casualties than all of the so-called experts on television and in the press were saying.</p> <p>My two concerns were: I didn’t know how rapidly we could bring it to a conclusion, and I wasn’t sure what the casualty level would be, because I didn’t know whether they would use chemicals, or whether we would have some bad luck someplace along the line. My two greatest concerns were the length of the war, and the number of casualties.</p> <p>I’m very happy that the war ended quickly. The casualty level was much lower than even I thought, and I had about the lowest estimate of everybody and, of course, much, much lower than all of the experts who like to appear on television with great regularity.</p> <p>One of the great joys for me now is to go to a public place and run into a parent, and the parent will stop me and say hello. And they’ll invariably say (if it’s appropriate), “My son was in Desert Storm.” And then I always have to pause for a moment, and then I usually say, “Is he all right?” And the answer almost always is, thankfully, “Yes, he’s all right. Thank you for bringing him home safely.” Norm, I’m sure, gets the same thing.</p> <p>We did something unique, in addition to doing well in Desert Storm. And we have to remember, we did win. Notwithstanding all the second-guessing, the Iraqi army is not in Kuwait, although I’m sure some book will come out claiming it is still in Kuwait, but it isn’t.</p> <p>It was so successful it gave us the opportunity to reach back and get our Vietnam buddies and bring them into it. And in the parades, and in all the celebrations last year, we made a particular point to include our Vietnam buddies, because the leaders of Desert Shield and Storm were all Vietnam veterans. That was a great joy. I’m very happy that that conflict ended quickly, and with very few casualties. But for those parents who did lose children, the casualty level was too high.</p> <p><strong>There’s a quote by Thucydides that you appreciate very much: “Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.”</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: One of the great strengths of America, and the reason we are held in such high regard throughout the world, is that people trust our power, and they trust the way in which we use our power. The more powerful you are, the more people want to trust you with that power. They would hate to not trust you with that power.</p> <p><strong>In 1996, there you were speaking to the Republican National Convention. What was that like for you?</strong></p> <p>Colin Powell: It was a pretty exciting moment, pretty challenging moment. I had made it clear that I wasn’t interested in a political career, but I wanted to be active in the discussion and debate of issues in the country. People came to me, asking me my opinion on various issues. I identified myself as a Republican who was very conservative fiscally and with matters of foreign policy and national defense, but who was quite moderate to liberal on a number of the social issues of the day. So I was going into a convention where I was received as a popular former general, but I was also going into a convention that collectively was far more conservative politically than I was.</p> <p>What I had to do was to create and deliver a speech that talked to the aspirations of all Americans. That told people why I was a Republican, but also told them what my strong views were on some of these social issues that I have differences of opinion on with respect to the party platform. It was a speech that took me a lot of time to craft and put together. I’d never stood before a political convention in my life, and never stood before an audience like that before. Once I had it set in my own mind, I just went out there and delivered it. And it went pretty well.</p> <p><strong>Thank you very much, General. It’s been an honor talking to you.</strong></p> <p>You’re very welcome.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">General Colin L. Powell, USA Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>70 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.25" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell.jpg" data-image-caption="April 1989: General Colin L. Powell as the Commanding General of FORSCOM." data-image-copyright="DA-SC-90-00335" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-608x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4931237721022" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WL006934.jpg" data-image-caption="Circa 1989: General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, escorts his Soviet counterpart on a tour at Fort Drum, New York. (Wally McNamee/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="Colin Powell at an Army Post" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WL006934-254x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WL006934-509x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65394736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Warren-Christopher-2.15.16c.jpg" data-image-caption="April 11, 1993: The Honorable Leslie (Les) Aspin (left), U.S. Secretary of Defense; the Honorable Warren Christopher, U.S. Secretary of State; and U.S. Army General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, walk through a corridor of the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. (DOD Photo by Robert D. Ward)" data-image-copyright="930411-D-9880W-014" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Warren-Christopher-2.15.16c-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Warren-Christopher-2.15.16c-760x497.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4901960784314" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker.jpg" data-image-caption="Awards Council member and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin L. Powell, USA presents the Golden Plate Award to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III at the 1998 Summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming." data-image-copyright="Former Secretary of State James A. Baker and General Colin L. Powell, USA." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-Jim-Baker-510x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/president_with_collin_powell.jpg" data-image-caption="December 1, 2010: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with former Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Oval Office to discuss issues ranging from education and efforts to reduce the high school dropout rate to the importance of ratifying the New START Treaty. Vice President Biden is holding a copy of the report "Building a Grad Nation." (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)" data-image-copyright="president_with_collin_powell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/president_with_collin_powell-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/president_with_collin_powell-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.79736842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pp-03.jpg" data-image-caption="February 1995: Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter joined former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and then-U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) on a trip to Haiti to assess progress on preparations for elections. President Carter, General Powell, and Sam Nunn had convinced the country's military leaders to step down in September 1994." data-image-copyright="pp-03" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pp-03-380x303.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pp-03-760x606.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-un-3.jpg" data-image-caption="February 14, 2003: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gestures as he addresses the Security Council at United Nations headquarters in New York City. Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix delivered to the council an update on the progress of the inspectors in Iraq, stating banned Iraqi weapons still are unaccounted for and two versions of Iraq's al Samoud 2 missile exceed the maximum range set by United Nations of 93 miles. (Stephen Chernin)" data-image-copyright="Blix: Banned Weapons Still Unaccounted For In Iraq" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-un-3-380x298.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-un-3-760x596.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-selfie.jpg" data-image-caption="1950s: "Throwback Thursday - I was doing selfies 60 years before you Facebook folks. Eat your heart out, Ellen! Colin Powell via Facebook"" data-image-copyright="powell-selfie" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-selfie-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-selfie-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.73947368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-ap080701045868.jpg" data-image-caption="July 1, 2008: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks in Providence, Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)" data-image-copyright="Colin Powell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-ap080701045868-380x281.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell-ap080701045868-760x562.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.1728395061728" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un.jpg" data-image-caption="February 5, 2003: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial that he described as one that could contain anthrax during his presentation on Iraq to the UN Security Council in New York. Powell tried to persuade a skeptical world that Iraq is concealing its weapons of mass destruction and that war may be necessary to disarm it. (REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine)" data-image-copyright="US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL HOLD UP VIAL DURING PRESENTATION TOUN." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un-324x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell1-un-648x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0614525139665" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807.jpg" data-image-caption="April 4, 2002: Secretary of State Colin Powell looks on as President Bush makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)" data-image-copyright="BUSH POWELL" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807-358x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/powell_20020404_807-716x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991.jpg" data-image-caption="1991: Paul D. Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, right, takes notes while General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Central Command, listen to Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney answer questions from the media. The men are taking part in a press conference held by U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials during Operation Desert Storm." data-image-copyright="DN-ST-92-07861" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell_Schwarzkopf_and_Wolfowitz_at_Cheney_press_conference_February_1991-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3427561837456" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin194.jpg" data-image-caption="General Powell briefs the press on the progress of the Gulf War. (Bettman)" data-image-copyright="General Powell briefs the press on the progress of the Gulf War. (Bettman)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin194-283x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin194-566x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.64868421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin-Getty-50475461_10.jpg" data-image-caption="1996: Retired General Colin Powell announcing his decision not to run for president in 1996. (Photo by Cynthia Johnson/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Colin L. Powell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin-Getty-50475461_10-380x247.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Powell-Colin-Getty-50475461_10-760x493.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.72474747474747" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-053.jpg" data-image-caption="General Powell with his growing family in 1975. Annemarie, age five; his wife, Alma; ten year-old Linda; and Mike, age twelve." data-image-copyright="pow0-053" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-053-380x275.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-053.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.88888888888889" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-038.jpg" data-image-caption="Greeting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at Fort Campbell, Kentucky in 1976." data-image-copyright="pow0-038" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-038-380x338.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-038.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.7925" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-037.jpg" data-image-caption="Colin Powell visiting with soldiers of his brigade in field training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky." data-image-copyright="pow0-037" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-037-380x301.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-037.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.62121212121212" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-033.jpg" data-image-caption="Colin Powell meeting President Nixon in 1972." data-image-copyright="Meeting Pesident Nixon in 1972." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-033-380x236.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-033.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.7625" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-028.jpg" data-image-caption="ROTC summer camp, Fort Bragg, North Carolina: Colin Powell, duty officer of Company D." data-image-copyright="pow0-028" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-028-380x290.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-028.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0939226519337" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-020.jpg" data-image-caption="General Powell's mother, Maud Ariel McKoy Powell, called Arie." data-image-copyright="General Powell's mother, Maud Ariel McKoy Powell, called Arie." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-020-347x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-020.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-010.jpg" data-image-caption="Young Colin Powell, with his father, Luther, on 167th Street in Harlem, on their way home from church." data-image-copyright="pow0-010" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-010-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-010.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0969529085873" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-009.jpg" data-image-caption="The general's father, Luther Powell, as seen on the British passport he carried when he immigrated to the United States from Jamaica." data-image-copyright="pow0-009" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-009-346x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/pow0-009.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366.jpg" data-image-caption="July 18, 2011: President Barack Obama hosts an education roundtable in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building with business leaders and America’s Promise Alliance Chair Alma Powell, center, and Founding Chair General Colin Powell, left, to discuss what the business community can do to ensure we have a skilled, educated and competitive U.S. workforce. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)" data-image-copyright="p071811ps-0366" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/p071811ps-0366-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5049504950495" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Obit-Vessey_sham-1.jpg" data-image-caption="February 6, 1985: Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger, right, speaks with General John W. Vessey Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/John Duricka, File)" data-image-copyright="obit-vessey_sham-1" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Obit-Vessey_sham-1-252x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Obit-Vessey_sham-1-505x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Les-Aspin-2.27.16d.jpg" data-image-caption="January 21, 1993: The Honorable Leslie (Les) Aspin, Jr. (left), U.S. Secretary of Defense, holds his first official meeting with U.S. Army General Colin L. Powell (right), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the other Joint Chiefs of Staff, after his swearing-in ceremony in the Pentagon. (DOD Photo by Robert D. Ward) " data-image-copyright="930121-D-9880W-010" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Les-Aspin-2.27.16d-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Les-Aspin-2.27.16d-760x500.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Karzai-Powell-06097513.jpg" data-image-caption="January 17, 2002: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) shakes hands with Afghan Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai (L) after a joint press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. Secretary Powell pledged that Washington would stand by Afghanistan in the long term after hearing Interim Prime Minister Karzai say Afghanistan was unsure about the strength of America's commitment." data-image-copyright="karzai-powell-06097513" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Karzai-Powell-06097513-380x266.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Karzai-Powell-06097513-760x533.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4785992217899" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img_1824.jpg" data-image-caption="2003: General Colin Powell's bestselling autobiography, <i>My American Journey</i>." data-image-copyright="img_1824" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img_1824-257x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img_1824-514x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68289473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_DF-ST-92-07514.jpg" data-image-caption="1990: General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks via satellite to the Pentagon while visiting troops during Operation Desert Shield." data-image-copyright="DESERT SHIELD" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_DF-ST-92-07514-380x260.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_DF-ST-92-07514-760x519.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_131111-D-BW835-1935.jpg" data-image-caption="November 11, 2013: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki greet Colin Powell, former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. Hagel and Shinseki, both Vietnam veterans, walked the wall and greeted veterans who had gathered there to hear a speech by Powell. (Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)" data-image-copyright="131111-D-BW835-1577" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_131111-D-BW835-1935-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/hires_131111-D-BW835-1935-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hillary-Clinton-and-Colin-Powell-Saul-Loeb-AFP-Getty.jpg" data-image-caption="December 7, 2009: Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) jokes with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during an unveiling ceremony for his official State Department portrait in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the State Department in Washington, D.C. Powell served as Secretary of State from 2001-2005 under former U.S. President George W. Bush. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="hillary-clinton-and-colin-powell-saul-loeb-afp-getty" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hillary-Clinton-and-Colin-Powell-Saul-Loeb-AFP-Getty-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Hillary-Clinton-and-Colin-Powell-Saul-Loeb-AFP-Getty-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gwbush-riceandpowell.jpg" data-image-caption="May 12, 2006: President George W. Bush meets in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with current and former Secretaries of State and Secretaries of Defense, in Washington, D.C. Shown with the president are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (center) and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. (Martin H. Simon)" data-image-copyright="USA - Bush - Rice - Powell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gwbush-riceandpowell-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gwbush-riceandpowell-760x510.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1.jpg" data-image-caption="September 3, 2014: Secretary of State John Kerry (R) is joined by former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton (C) and Colin Powell during the ceremonial groundbreaking for the future U.S. Diplomacy Center at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building in Washington, D.C. 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." (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Secretary Of State Kerry Joined By Former Secretaries Break Ground On US Diplomacy Center" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GettyImages-454555088-1-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gettyimages-119328059_slide-d916d916aef931a183df243164b8dad6a4a65014-s1600-c85.jpg" data-image-caption="Former Secretary of State Colin Powell. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Former Secretary of State Colin Powell. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gettyimages-119328059_slide-d916d916aef931a183df243164b8dad6a4a65014-s1600-c85-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gettyimages-119328059_slide-d916d916aef931a183df243164b8dad6a4a65014-s1600-c85-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.501976284585" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-L.-Powell.jpg" data-image-caption="March 4, 2011: Colin Powell receives the "President's Award" at the 42nd NAACP Images Awards in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Earl Gibson III)" data-image-copyright="42nd NAACP Image Awards" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-L.-Powell-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-L.-Powell-506x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66973684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing.jpg" data-image-caption=" June 1991: General Colin L. Powell, USA and General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA at the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies, which concluded the American Academy of Achievement's 1991 "Salute to Excellence" program." data-image-copyright="general-colin-powell-and-schwarzkopf-norman-laughing" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/General-Colin-Powell-and-Schwarzkopf-Norman-laughing-760x509.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2859560067682" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GEN_Colin_Powell.jpg" data-image-caption="November 1989: General Colin Powell's official Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff portrait." data-image-copyright="DA-SC-91-07109" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GEN_Colin_Powell-295x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GEN_Colin_Powell-591x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/files.php_.jpg" data-image-caption="April 11, 2011: The Powell family (Michael, Alma, General Powell and Jane — first from right — with Acting President Timothy Hamel-Smith and U.S. Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago Beatrice Wilkinson Welters." data-image-copyright="files-php" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/files.php_-380x267.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/files.php_-760x533.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.62631578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Collin-Powell-naacp.jpg" data-image-caption="March 4, 2011: (L-R) President of the NAACP Ben Jealous is joined with his wife, Lia Epperson, Alma Powell and Colin Powell at the 42nd NAACP Images Awards in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Earl Gibson III)" data-image-copyright="42nd NAACP Image Awards" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Collin-Powell-naacp-380x238.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Collin-Powell-naacp-760x476.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.5169660678643" title="2012: General Colin Powell poses for a photo with his portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. (AP)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - 2012: General Colin Powell poses for a photo with his portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. (AP)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-portrait-1.jpg" data-image-caption="December 2, 2012: General Colin Powell poses for a photo with his portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. (Paul Morigi/AP Images for National Portrait Gallery)" data-image-copyright="Commissioned Portrait of Gen. Colin Powell Installed at the National Portrait Gallery" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-portrait-1-250x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-portrait-1-501x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.70263157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-george-tenet.jpg" data-image-caption="February 5, 2003: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (R) talks with CIA Director George Tenet (L) after his presentation to the UN Security Council in New York. Powell tried to persuade a skeptical world that Iraq was concealing its weapons of mass destruction and that war might be necessary to disarm it. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)" data-image-copyright="U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talks with CIA Director George Tenet after his presentation to the U.N. Security Council in New York" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-george-tenet-380x267.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/colin-powell-george-tenet-760x534.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.25" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ColinPowell.jpg" data-image-caption="Lieutenant General Colin L. Powell, USA " data-image-copyright="DA-SC-90-03093" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ColinPowell-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ColinPowell-608x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals.jpg" data-image-caption="General John M. Shalikashvili, USA; General David C. Jones, USAF; and General Colin L. Powell, USA" data-image-copyright="wp-powell-general-colin-and-other-generals" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-Powell-General-Colin-and-other-Generals-760x510.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.72105263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_with_Jaap_de_Hoop_Scheffer.jpg" data-image-caption="November 9, 2004: NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer bids farewell to outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during the Foreign Ministers Meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels." data-image-copyright="colin_powell_with_jaap_de_hoop_scheffer" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_with_Jaap_de_Hoop_Scheffer-380x274.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_with_Jaap_de_Hoop_Scheffer-760x548.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.25" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_official_Secretary_of_State_photo.jpg" data-image-caption="January 2001: Official portrait of Colin L. Powell as the Secretary of State of the United States of America." data-image-copyright="colin_powell_official_secretary_of_state_photo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_official_Secretary_of_State_photo-304x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_official_Secretary_of_State_photo-608x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65657894736842" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_and_Norman_Schwarzkopf.jpg" data-image-caption="1990-91: General Norman Schwarzkopf talks with General Colin Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a press conference regarding the Gulf War." data-image-copyright="colin_powell_and_norman_schwarzkopf" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_and_Norman_Schwarzkopf-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin_Powell_and_Norman_Schwarzkopf-760x499.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin-Powell-with-Norman-Schwarzkopf-and-Susan-Butcher.jpg" data-image-caption="Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell with Alan Dershowitz and Susan Butcher at the Academy of Achievement's 1991 "Salute to Excellence" program. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Susan Butcher." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin-Powell-with-Norman-Schwarzkopf-and-Susan-Butcher-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Colin-Powell-with-Norman-Schwarzkopf-and-Susan-Butcher-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66973684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/clinton-powell.jpg" data-image-caption="October 7, 2011: Former President Bill Clinton talks with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell during funeral services for General John M. Shalikashvili at Memorial Chapel on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Shalikashvilli served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Clinton administration and succeeded Powell in the position. (Jim Dresbach)" data-image-copyright="clinton-powell" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/clinton-powell-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/clinton-powell-760x509.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67368421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/carlucci.jpg" data-image-caption="February 25, 1987: President Reagan holds a National Security Council meeting with George Bush, Donald Regan, Frank Carlucci, Colin Powell, Robert Oakley and Robert Gates in the Oval Office." data-image-copyright="carlucci" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/carlucci-380x256.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/carlucci-760x512.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-JQ403_cover_M_20150730130655.jpg" data-image-caption="January 18, 1991: Early in Operation Desert Storm, President George H. W. Bush met with top aides, including (from left) National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell. (Corbis)" data-image-copyright="bn-jq403_cover_m_20150730130655" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-JQ403_cover_M_20150730130655-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-JQ403_cover_M_20150730130655-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.56184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508.jpg" data-image-caption="December 16, 1988: Colin Powell, during his time as National Security Advisor, accompanies President Reagan as he leaves the White House. (Barry Thumma/AP)" data-image-copyright="ap_338918003536" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ap_338918003536_wide-96de46dfaa9e1fd8dbad56af410ff47f22cfa508-760x427.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/alma-colin-powell-wedding.jpg" data-image-caption="Colin Powell and Alma Johnson on their wedding day in 1962." data-image-copyright="Colin Powell and Alma Johnson Wedding day, 1962." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/alma-colin-powell-wedding-380x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/alma-colin-powell-wedding.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65394736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989.jpg" data-image-caption="1989: Colin and Alma Powell at the Academy of Achievement Summit in San Francisco, California. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="alma-and-colin-powell-summit-1989" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Alma-and-Colin-Powell-summit-1989-760x497.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67090395480226" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ae01fe3e29ae9906c9e775cda5dfceb1.jpg" data-image-caption="1972: Colin Powell meeting President Richard Nixon at the White House." data-image-copyright="1972: Colin Powell meeting President Richard Nixon at the White House." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ae01fe3e29ae9906c9e775cda5dfceb1-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ae01fe3e29ae9906c9e775cda5dfceb1.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68815789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/15570753996_78eb58ff85_o.jpg" data-image-caption="Retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Secretary of State General Colin Powell gives interviews with the media on the “red carpet” during the world premiere of the movie <i>Fury</i> at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. (Department of Defense photo by Marvin Lynchard)" data-image-copyright="Fury movie premiere at the Newseum in Washington D.C." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/15570753996_78eb58ff85_o-380x261.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/15570753996_78eb58ff85_o-760x523.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1078897.jpg" data-image-caption="August 20, 2012: Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discusses his new memoir, <i>It Worked for Me</i>. (Julia Schmalz/Bloomberg)" data-image-copyright="Colin Powell Discusses his New Book 'It Worked for Me'" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1078897-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1078897-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/047110-C-OCZ02-069.jpg" data-image-caption="June 10, 1991: General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; General Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander, U.S. Central Command; and Mrs. Schwarzkopf ride in the Welcome Home parade honoring the men and women who served in Desert Storm." data-image-copyright="DESERT STORM" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/047110-C-OCZ02-069-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/047110-C-OCZ02-069-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/4662cf34-96e9-463b-b03c-4eb1c0014783.jpg" data-image-caption="December 23, 1990: Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell, left, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, center, discuss the Gulf Crisis with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Egypt. Cheney stopped in Cairo after leaving Saudi Arabia, where he met with U.S. troops and held a classified strategy session. (AP Photo/T. Cambra Pierce)" data-image-copyright="Powell Cheney Mubarak" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/4662cf34-96e9-463b-b03c-4eb1c0014783-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/4662cf34-96e9-463b-b03c-4eb1c0014783-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g.jpeg" data-image-caption="February 8, 1985: Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger speaks with Army Major General Colin Powell during testimony before the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo)" data-image-copyright="1-59dignk_538pb50brlet3g" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g-380x251.jpeg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-59DiGnK_538pB50brLEt3g.jpeg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-powell-delarenta-walters-168058-13.jpg" data-image-caption="Oscar de la Renta, Barbara Walters and Colin Powell at the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies, which concluded the American Academy of Achievement’s 1991 “Salute to Excellence” program in New York City. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-powell-delarenta-walters-168058-13" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-powell-delarenta-walters-168058-13-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wp-powell-delarenta-walters-168058-13-760x503.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="General Colin Powell takes questions from the Summit's student delegates." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - General Colin Powell takes questions from the Summit's student delegates.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress.jpg" data-image-caption="General Colin Powell takes questions from the 2010 International Achievement Summit's student delegates in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="Reynolds_0269_wordpress" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Reynolds_0269_wordpress-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by Colin Powell and Academy delegates on the last night of the 50th annual Summit." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by Colin Powell and Academy delegates on the last night of the 50th annual Summit.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846.jpg" data-image-caption="2012: Aretha Franklin is joined onstage by Colin Powell and Academy delegates on the last night of the 50th annual Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="1846" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1846-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.83026315789474" title="Ben Hammersley, Lisa Svensson and Claudia Calvin Venero with Colin Powell." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - Ben Hammersley, Lisa Svensson and Claudia Calvin Venero with Colin Powell.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1567.jpg" data-image-caption="Ben Hammersley, Lisa Svensson and Claudia Calvin Venero with Colin Powell at the 2012 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="Ben Hammersley, Lisa Svensson and Claudia Calvin Venero with Colin Powell." data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1567-380x316.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1567-760x631.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65394736842105" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002.jpg" data-image-caption="On the head table at the American Academy of Achievement’s 1989 Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies in San Francisco: Awards Council members, broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer and General Colin L. Powell, USA. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_scan002" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-powell_and_dianesawyer_Scan002-760x497.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67763157894737" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-WatsonPowellSummitTable1.jpg" data-image-caption="Golden Plate Awards Council member General Colin L. Powell, USA, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Dr. James D. Watson on the head table at the American Academy of Achievement's 1991 Banquet of the Golden Plate. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-watsonpowellsummittable1" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-WatsonPowellSummitTable1-380x257.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/wp-WatsonPowellSummitTable1-760x515.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66184210526316" title="After finishing graduate school at The George Washington University in 1971, I served on the Army staff for a year before being selected for a White House Fellowship. On my last day on the Army staff, I was presented a Legion of Merit by my boss, Major General Herbert McChrystal. Alma is holding Annemarie, while Mike and Linda look on with reasonable interest." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - After finishing graduate school at The George Washington University in 1971, I served on the Army staff for a year before being selected for a White House Fellowship. On my last day on the Army staff, I was presented a Legion of Merit by my boss, Major General Herbert McChrystal. Alma is holding Annemarie, while Mike and Linda look on with reasonable interest.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU.jpg" data-image-caption="Colin Powell receives the Legion of Merit from Major General Herbert McChrystal on Powell's last day on the Army staff before becoming a White House Fellow. Alma Powell holds Annemarie, while Mike and Linda Powell look on." data-image-copyright="POwell, Colin Grad School GWU" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/POwell-Colin-Grad-School-GWU-760x503.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.94473684210526" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC.jpg" data-image-caption="I entered ROTC in the fall of 1954. Here I am in my first uniform. I had found something that I loved and that I did well." data-image-copyright="Powell, Colin ROTC" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC-380x359.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-ROTC-760x718.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House.jpg" data-image-caption="This was about as close to the White House as I got when I was a White House Fellow in 1972 and 1973. The Fellowship was a unique program, which gave me invaluable insight into the workings of Washington." data-image-copyright="Powell, Colin Solo White House" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Solo-White-House-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.62631578947368" title="1962: Wedding day, Birmingham, Alabama. Powell's parents are on the left, Alma Johnson's parents on the right." data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - 1962: Wedding day, Birmingham, Alabama. Powell's parents are on the left, Alma Johnson's parents on the right.">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Wedding-Photo.jpg" data-image-caption="1962: Wedding day, Birmingham, Alabama. Powell's parents are on the left, Alma Johnson's parents on the right." data-image-copyright="Powell, Colin Wedding Photo" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Wedding-Photo-380x238.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Powell-Colin-Wedding-Photo-760x476.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.68684210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Powell-and-Susan-Butcher.jpg" data-image-caption="June 1991, Academy members: Constitutional scholar Alan M. Dershowitz, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA, Susan Butcher and General Colin L. Powell, USA at the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies, which concluded the American Academy of Achievement’s 1991 “Salute to Excellence” program in New York City. (© Stanley R. Zax)" data-image-copyright="Powell and Susan Butcher" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Powell-and-Susan-Butcher-380x261.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Powell-and-Susan-Butcher-760x522.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.80131578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1.jpg" data-image-caption="Colin and Alma Powell are with Academy members Chuck Yeager, famed test pilot and member of the Aviation Hall of Fame, and Dinah Shore, singer and actress who was an inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. They are at a luncheon and symposium aboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier during the 1989 American Academy of Achievement Summit program in San Francisco, California. (Photo: Stanley Zax)" data-image-copyright="Chuck Yeager and Colin Powell-2280" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1-380x305.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Chuck-Yeager-and-Colin-Powell-2280-1-760x609.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on August 16, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service help-mankind experienced-war-firsthand ambitious join-the-military pursue-public-office " data-year-inducted="1995" data-achiever-name="Bush"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/bush-007a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/bush-007a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">George H. 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Bush</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">41st President of the United States</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1995</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever science-exploration public-service difficulty-with-school ambitious spiritual-religious poverty " data-year-inducted="1995" data-achiever-name="Carson"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/car1-030-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/car1-030-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Pediatric Neurosurgeon and Public Servant</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1995</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service analytical resourceful join-the-military teach-others help-mankind pursue-public-office " data-year-inducted="2002" data-achiever-name="Kissinger"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kissinger_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kissinger_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Nobel Prize for Peace</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2002</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service imprisonment-persecution racism-discrimination shy-introverted spiritual-religious teach-others help-mankind " data-year-inducted="1995" data-achiever-name="Parks"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/parks-rosa-760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/parks-rosa-760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Rosa Parks</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Pioneer of Civil Rights</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1995</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service experienced-war-firsthand small-town-rural-upbringing ambitious athletic join-the-military " data-year-inducted="2012" data-achiever-name="Petraeus"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/petraeus0-017a-1-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/petraeus0-017a-1-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">General David H. Petraeus, USA</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Military Strategist</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">2012</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever public-service experienced-war-firsthand ambitious join-the-military " data-year-inducted="1991" data-achiever-name="Schwarzkopf"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/schwarzkopf-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/schwarzkopf-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Congressional Gold Medal</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1991</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> </footer> </div> </div> </article> <div class="modal image-modal fade" id="imageModal" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="imageModal" aria-hidden="true"> <div class="close-container"> <div class="close icon-icon_x" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close"></div> </div> <div class="modal-dialog" role="document"> <div class="modal-content"> <div class="modal-body"> <figure class="image-modal__container"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <img class="image-modal__image" src="/web/20190220100639im_/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/" alt=""/>  <figcaption class="p-t-2 container"> <div class="image-modal__caption sans-2 text-white"></div>  </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> </div> </div> <footer class="content-info main-footer bg-black"> <div class="container"> <div class="find-achiever" id="find-achiever-list"> <div class="form-group"> <input id="find-achiever-input" class="search js-focus" placeholder="Search for an achiever"/> <i class="icon-icon_chevron-down"></i> </div> <ul class="find-achiever-list list m-b-0 list-unstyled"> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hank-aaron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hank Aaron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kareem-abdul-jabbar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kareem Abdul-Jabbar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lynsey-addario/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lynsey Addario</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-albee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Albee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tenley-albright-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tenley Albright, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/svetlana-alexievich/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Svetlana Alexievich</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julie-andrews/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Julie Andrews</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Angelou</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-d-ballard-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert D. 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Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-herbert-donald-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Herbert Donald, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-doubilet/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David Doubilet</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-s-fauci-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reinhold-messner/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reinhold Messner</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190220100639/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. 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