Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state, dies at 84

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Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state, dies at 84

First grade students at Colin Powell Elementary School in Centreville, Virginia, watch a video of Gen. Colin Powell on Tuesday, October 19. Covid, a trailblazing military leader who went on to become the first black secretary of state, died at the age of 84 due to complications from Powell - 19, his family said. Colin Powell, the first black secretary of state whose leadership in several Republican administrations helped shape American foreign policy in the last years of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, died from complications from Covid - 19, his family said. He was the country's first national security adviser when he served at the end of Ronald Reagan's presidency, and he was the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Powell's popularity soared during the 1991 Gulf War, when he became one of the administration's most trusted spokesmen. He was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in March 1991 in recognition of his exemplary performance in planning and coordinating the US response to Iraq's invasion.

He became George W. Bush's first Cabinet selection and was tasked with building international support for the war on terror as Bush's top diplomat. In 2003, he delivered a speech before the United Nations in which he presented evidence that the intelligence community said proved Iraq had misled inspectors and hid weapons of mass destruction. He later called his UN speech a blot that will forever be on his record.

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