Colin Powell’s complicated legacy
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
The legacy of Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state, is complicated — by his role in the Iraq war, by the evolution of the Republican Party and by how he lived his life after public office.
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Former secretary of state Colin Powell died Monday of complications from covid-19. His long career in the public eye — as a decorated military officer and statesman — was marked by choices he made leading up to the Iraq War. But Powell’s life is also characterized by a shift away from the Republican Party, and his adherence to the old guard of American conservatism.
The Post’s Karen DeYoung, who wrote a biography of Powell, reflects on Powell’s life and the complex lessons of his legacy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The legacy of Colin Powell is complicated. |
| 0:04.8 | He was the first black secretary of state. |
| 0:07.6 | He was a decorated military leader. |
| 0:10.6 | But the world also knew him for saying something that didn't turn out to be true. |
| 0:15.4 | I cannot tell you everything that we know, but what I can share with you and combine with |
| 0:21.3 | what all of us have learned over the years is deeply troubling. |
| 0:25.4 | In 2003, Powell gave a speech at the UN trying to build support for a war in Iraq. |
| 0:32.1 | Because Iraq, he said, had weapons of mass destruction. |
| 0:36.4 | Years later, Colin Powell said again and again that he regretted this speech. |
| 0:41.3 | Here he is in 2010 on CNN. |
| 0:43.5 | I turned the dials, no question about it. |
| 0:45.9 | And that's what the president wanted me to do and what I was supposed to do. |
| 0:48.8 | You regret it? |
| 0:49.8 | I regret it now because the information was wrong. |
| 0:52.1 | Of course we do. |
| 0:53.6 | This public regret for his role in the Iraq war is an inescapable part of his legacy. |
| 0:59.6 | This is reporter Karen DeYoung who wrote Powell's biography. |
| 1:03.2 | And he said often that this was going to be probably in the first paragraph of his |
| 1:08.6 | obituary that he sold this policy to the American public and to Congress, but he sold it. |
| 1:16.0 | Powell sold it and it was not true. |
| 1:19.2 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:22.6 | I'm Martin Powers. |
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