Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday paid tribute to the late former Secretary of State and retired four-star Gen. Colin Powell, saying Powell’s military experience made him an advocate for diplomacy first and forceful intervention as a last resort.
Blinken delivered live remarks from State Department, where he praised Powell, who died early Monday morning, as “an extraordinary leader and a great man.”
“He gave the State Department the very best of his leadership, his experience, his patriotism,” Blinken said. “He gave us his decency, and the State Department loved him for it.”
Powell died Monday from complications of COVID-19, his family announced. The former secretary had a history of multiple myeloma, a common blood cancer that is found to put patients at an increased risk of severe disease from the novel coronavirus.
“Secretary Powell was beloved here at the State Department at C Street and at our embassies and consulates around the world,” Blinken said.
Blinken, in his remarks honoring America’s first Black secretary of State, praised Powell’s character as rooted in humble beginnings in the South Bronx and rising through the ranks of the military, a storied 35-year career from an infantry officer to top Cabinet positions in multiple presidential administrations.
“He was arguably the most respected and celebrated American in uniform,” Blinken said.
Powell’s appointment as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush made him the youngest and first African American person to hold that position. He retired as an Army four-star general in 1993 and was twice awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor.
Blinken said Powell’s military tenure deeply informed his time as secretary of State, during which he argued for military restraint in favor of diplomacy and crafted the “Powell doctrine,” a set of rigorous criteria to meet before justifying use of force and supportive of cooperation between military and diplomatic personnel in foreign affairs.
Blinken also described Powell as a man of deep humility who could “admit mistakes.”
Powell notably called his support for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq a “blot” on his record for arguing in favor of military action to the United Nations on the basis of false conclusions that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Blinken called this a mark of Powell’s “integrity.”
“Secretary Powell was, simply and completely, a leader, and he knew how to build a strong and united team. … The result was that his people would walk through walls for him.”