Colin Powell, the retired four-star general who became the country’s first black secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died October 18, 2021 due to complications from Covid-19. Powell, 84, was fully vaccinated. He was treated at Walter Reed National Medical Center where he died.
Powell had multiple myeloma, a cancer of a type of white blood cell, which can harm the body’s immune system, surgery for prostate cancer when he was Secretary of State and, more recently, Parkinson’s disease.
Powell delivered a well-known speech to the United Nations Security Council in February 2003 laying out the White House argument for invading Iraq and stating that there was intelligence that the country had weapons of mass destruction. These excuses for invading Iraq later were proven to be based on false intelligence. Powell later expressed regret over the remarks before the U.N.
The former 45th president derided the news media for treating the former secretary of state “so beautifully” after his death. “Hope that happens to me someday.” he said.