Colin Powell, former general and secretary of state, dead at 84
Colin Powell, a former military general and the first black secretary of state under President George W. Bush, has died of COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, his family said in a Facebook post. He was 84.
Colin Powell, a retired four-star general and White House national security adviser who served as the nation’s first black secretary of state, died Monday as a result of complications from COVID-19, his family said.
The 84-year-old was fully vaccinated against the virus.
In his four decades of public life, Powell was the first black man to serve as national security adviser near the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. In the latter role, he oversaw the US invasion of Panama and later the US invasion of Kuwait to oust the Iraqi army in 1991.
“General Colin L. Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, passed away this morning due to complications from Covid 19. He was fully vaccinated,” his family said in a statement on Facebook.
“We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American.”
By Emily Crane
