Customer Reviews

Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell (Vintage)

5 star:		(14)
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3 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung clearly finds the mark in her most auspicious biography of, in my opinion, America's finest leader in recent memory. Colin Powell truly is a great American and merits such a treatment of his life's story. I had the good fortune of speaking with him at some length one time on the telephone and found him to be a leader among leaders, in charge without being dictatorial, and utterly "cool." I trust that he will continue to inspire budding leaders of like integrity and ability to step forward and serve.

DeYoung captures the essence of Powell by delving deeply into his world. This she accomplished through a series of comprehensive interviews that offer a full picture of the man. Powell may have his shortcomings, but try and find another like him! DeYoung also succeeds, because of her skills and experiences as a Washington insider. She talks Powell's language of "intel-speak" and "Realpolitik." A pragmatist and not an ideologue, Powell always has been a good soldier. He is at once loyal in service, yet also unafraid to raise a flag as a referee might do at a sporting event. He kept administration extremists at arm's length and tried to exert a moderating influence over policies and events.

As good as he is, Powell is not Superman. In some ways, he fell short of steering administrations away from such pitfalls as the Iran-contra affair and the present quandary in Iraq. Even the euphoria of the 1991 liberation of Kuwait did not translate into a regime change in Iraq, because it would have fractured the coalition, turned the Muslim world against the US, and left America hard-pressed to win the peace amid sectarian violence and groping to come up with an exit strategy. Like today.

From the 1980s on, Powell has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Gorbachev, George W. Bush, and almost everyone of power in between. Most of them he influenced for the better. A few got the better of him. Powell's 2003 UN presentation on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq exposed some of his flaws, but we can be sure that Powell did his homework. Perhaps his priorities got discombobulated, since hindsight now tells us that North Korea is a WMD threat, Iran is well on the way, and Iraq was grossly exaggerated.

DeYoung presents all this and much more in a book that may well have a shot at a Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award. DeYoung gives us Powell's personal life as well, including a vignette about how relieved he and his family were when he finally let go of his quest for the presidency. Somewhat of an outsider, Powell was better suited to become an appointed Cabinet member and sounding board for a president open-minded enough to take advice from someone gutsy enough to disagree with him. And Powell is centrist enough to have served with such polar opposites as Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. DeYoung also reveals that Powell is pro-choice on abortion, a stance that I disagree with strongly. Overall, however, the Colin Powell that DeYoung presents is a person I admire and one who continues to do much good for his country. Even the dust cover shows him wearing a little red wagon lapel pin, the symbol of his brainchild project America's Promise, an effort to help American children to become competent and caring adults. Like Colin Powell! With a boost from this outstanding biography, may he continue to inspire new leaders to follow his example and help make this world a better place. Rev. Dennis J. Mercieri

Having read Powell's "My American Journey," I enjoyed contrasting the first 250 (or so) pages of this biography with his autobiography. With that in mind, Karen DeYoung does a good job addressing Colin Powell's early life as well as his military career outside of Washington. However, it's obvious that those topics are not her primary interests. Her writing is not bad as she covers these non-political topics, but the discussion ALMOST seems obligatory in nature.

Once Colin Powell's life starts revolving around Washington, though, the author's strengths really do come out and the book becomes a very good read.

Like many (all?) of the other reviewers, I am a fan of the book's subject, so I had a strong desire for this book to succeed from the moment I saw the title. However, that positive bias alone would not be enough to grant four stars. This is a quality book.

I do, though, strongly encourage people to read Powell's autobiography prior to reading this biography. The combination (in that order) will allow you to develop a much more informed picture of the man.

There are two verses that appear to summarize the essence of Colin Powell, as portrayed by Karen DeYoung in her brilliant biography of this beloved American hero.:

" . . . soldiers didn't' quit when they disagreed with the decisions of their commanders . . . he would be a soldier until he drew his last breath."

"I've had tough days. I've had great days . . . There are days where things don't go so well and a position you might have been pushing isn't successful . . . That just comes with the business. And if that's going to put you into a blue funk, then you're in the wrong business . . . I've been shot at for real, as opposed to the way I get shot at now."

The reviews of excellence written about DeYoung's large-scale undertaking about this extraordinary man are accurate. The story of Powell's life from the time he was asked to resign by President Bush to his family ties in Jamaica, and his beginning in the United States Armed Forces and back again, to give a speech at the War College . . . and everything in between is simply brilliantly and fluidly portrayed.

DeYoung answers, as I needed answers, why this man of great integrity appeared to have lost his credibility during the sent off mission he was asked to extend himself to with respect the WMD issue during the Iraq War. DeYoung further answers a very important question of why Colin Powell, now going on age 69 (I didn't know that!) chose not to become involved with electoral politics. Nevertheless, here is Colin Powell, personally the one individual who could have brought this nation closer together in a way not seen since the times of President Lincoln. Missed opportunity or a soldier being a soldier? Perhaps a little of both. Somehow, I believe Colin Powell is far from done. Let's hope so.

In this superb journalistic work, Karen DeYoung does not back off the hard questions about Colin Powell, cross references and makes accessible her diligent research, and stylistically writes in a manner most every reader will appreciate. There is no meandering, no drifting, and no wondering: simply put, DeYoung has written an extraordinary book about an extraordinary man, who I like many hope he realizes that his duty to the public is far from over.

It will be said of Colin Powell that he was truly an officer and a gentleman.

Powell's story about his life is best described in his autobiography: My American Journey. Karen DeYoung's biography of Powell is most powerful when she chronicles Powell's civilian years: specifically when she addresses Powell's life in his role as President George W. Bush's Secretary of State. DeYoung is both critical and sympathetic. While Powell may have cooperated with DeYoung in the writing of this book she evidentially exercised final authority on the end product. This however, is not surprising as Powell both understands and respects the concepts of hierarchy and authority.
There are those that will view many of Powell's assessments in DeYoung's biography as "Bush bashing"; however I would urge the reader to be open minded: this is more a contrast of styles. President Bush acts primarily on his political and spiritual instincts while Powell is detailed in his analysis of the same situation. And while Powell might disagree with the President's ultimate decision, like a good soldier he defers to his commander-in-chief.
Clearly, President Bush was wary of Powell's advice. Consistently the President relied more heavily upon those with whom he was more comfortable: Secretary Rumsfeld, Vice-President Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Here the reader is allowed to make her own assessment of the various personalities and their impact on this country's foreign policy during President Bush's first term in office. It is quite revelatory how Powell was consistently undercut by the forenamed. Looking back, it is apparent now how the President could have been better served had he listened more instead of less to his Secretary of State. DeYoung thoroughly and competently deals with some of the Secretary's key issues during President Bush's first term: Powell's role as ambassador to the United Nations; his address to that body on the existence of WMD in Iraq; his preference in dealing with Iraq diplomatically instead of mounting a costly invasion; his visit to Israel in 2003; and his opposition to the treatment suffered by detainees and enemy combatants as it related to the rules of warfare (read that Geneva Conventions).

After reading this book I have a greater respect and admiration for General Powell and what he endured with the President and the President's various constituents. Regardless of your political persuasion, I highly recommend this book but not for the reasons one might ordinarily expect. DeYoung uses the contrasting personalities of Secretary Powell, the soldier and President Bush, the politician merely as backdrops in order to provide an interesting snapshot of Washington politics during one of this nation's most controversial and dangerous periods.

You don't hear much about Colin Powell these days. A man who until recently was featured routinely in the daily news and once courted by both political parties as Presidential timber now passes his time quietly in private life. Like an inactive volcano he is still there, quiet but respected for the power he could wield if he chose.

Karen DeYoung, a senior editor and foreign policy reporter at the Washington Post, examines Powell's life in fascinating detail in this book. She does her best to get inside his head and explain some of the puzzling aspects of his personality. When you turn her final page, you know an awful lot about Colin Powell as a person and about his career path, but whether you truly understand what makes the man tick is hard to say. In important respects he remains an enormously respected enigma.

DeYoung covers the early stages of Powell's military career in workmanlike detail, but inevitably her main focus, dominating the last half of her 523-page text, details his four-year tenure as George W. Bush's Secretary of State and his involvement in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The obvious questions abound: What was his attitude toward the Iraq venture? Did he try to derail it? Why did he not resign when his counsel was ignored? Why did he reject the idea of running for President himself? Is he in any sense blameworthy for the unfortunate turn of events in Iraq? If he is not, who is?

DeYoung's portrait of Powell, buttressed by an impressive amount of research, shows us a man trained in the military virtue of loyalty, not by nature an activist firebrand, convinced that persuasion and diplomacy must be tried before guns are fired, utterly repelled by down-and-dirty politics --- and caught in the middle of fierce ideological brawls without the means or temperament to make his own views prevail. Her account of the "catfights" among Bush's advisers is not pretty. Powell himself, unwillingly caught up in the crossfire, comes across as noble yet often ineffectual.

DeYoung's book amplifies some of the points made in Powell's own 1995 memoir, MY AMERICAN JOURNEY --- but back then the big question was simply, "Is Colin Powell a Democrat or a Republican?" Powell himself then seemed unsure and craftily did not answer the question in his book. Eventually he decided he was "about 55% a Republican" --- but when in 1996 the pressure on him to run for President demanded an answer, Powell and writer Joseph Persico actually drafted two speeches, one saying "yes," the other "no" and virtually up to the last minute Powell was not certain which one he would give, comparing his vacillations to the back-and-forth of a windshield wiper. One factor in his decision not to run was his wife's revulsion at the idea. Another was his genuine liking for President Clinton. A third was the idea that not since McClellan ran against Lincoln had a general run against his commander-in-chief.

When Bush asked him to become Secretary of State in 2000, Powell knew he was ready for the job, but he soon found himself taking heavy fire from the cabal of hard-right conservatives who seemed to be directing Bush's thinking and cutting Powell out of the decision-making process. The two main villains, in DeYoung's view, were Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney pushed hard for the Iraq campaign while Powell warned the President about its cost and evident dangers; Rumsfeld lobbied for a smaller, more mobile and high-tech army against Powell's famous doctrine of "overwhelming force."

DeYoung describes a virtual war to the death between Powell's State Department and Rumsfeld's Defense Department for control of the Iraq campaign. It was a struggle that State largely lost, but Powell, ever the loyalist even to a President about whom he had grave reservations, stayed on and kept battling.

When Bush was re-elected, Powell was ready to quit but never raised the issue himself. The axe fell via a phone call, not from Bush but from his Chief of Staff: Bush "wanted to make a change." Powell, diplomat to the end, made no public fuss. When he went to the Oval Office for his farewell visit, he felt that Bush did not know why he was there.

Karen DeYoung has done about as good a job as anyone could of explaining Colin Powell to the public. The Powell volcano is still quiet. If DeYoung is right, it will doubtless never erupt again. He has vowed never to write a tell-all book, but DeYoung has tried to do that for him.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn [...]

DeYoung begins by relating how Bush pushed Powell out at the end of his 1st term, without the courtesy of even personally discussing it with him; making matters worse was the fact that Bush didn't even know why Powell was at the White House when it came time to say "Good Bye."

Colin Powell came from Jamaican parents (often called "Jewmaicans" by American Negroes because of the emphasis they placed on hard work and education), and during his early life in the NYC area suffered little, if any, racial prejudice. Later on, unfortunately, the insults were quite aggravating, but Powell was determined to not let them inhibit his performance.

Powell was an indifferent student in high school and at CCNY (majored in geology); however, ROTC piqued his sophomore-year interest and he soon became a standout. Powell went on to be selected outstanding cadet, and top graduate (or very close) in every military training setting he undertook, as well as a top MBA student at George Washington University. He also was top-ranked by superiors in almost every military assignment, leading to his being offered a White House fellowship, which in turn provided Powell with travel to Russia and China and brought him in contact with a number of influential people who were impressed enough to forward Powell onto Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State.

One of Powell's "secrets of success" was to enthusiastically implement all orders, even those he considered silly - Powell himself believed that doing otherwise grounded the careers of many talented others.

Unfortunately, Powell eventually crossed paths with Dick Cheney (a bit of a problem during Gulf War I; a serious problem when Cheney became V.P.). Between Cheney's far-right bias ("out on the looney fringe" - per Powell) and Bush II's "disturbingly disjointed" decision-making - per Treasury Secretary O'Neill), Powell's contributions as Secretary of State were severely limited and constantly undermined and countermanded - often with Don Rumsfeld's help. In addition, he was often left out of important decisions, especially when out of the country. Ultimately, Powell's credibility suffered from the inaccurate information provided in his U.N. speech attesting to Saddam's WMD.

The big question, still debated, is "Why didn't he resign?" His supporters believe the reason is that Powell's nature simply didn't allow anything less than 100% support.

Bottom Line: If Cheney had not been such an ideologue (telling Bush there were no candidates good enough to run as his V.P. - ignoring Powell, and then sliding into the position himself), Powell would be V.P. today, possibly President in 2008. Similarly, if Bush #41 had not been so stubborn and instead replaced Quayle with Powell in '92, Powell might well have become first V.P., and then President.

Five MAXIMIZED Stars !! This biography by Karen DeYoung, associate editor of the Washington Post, is a monumental work of excellence, detailing the life and times of Colin Powell from his humble beginnings through his tenure as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush to his current endeavors. While the 1996 Colin Powell autobiography, "My American Journey", was excellent in examining his life and "his good stories", it misses the tumultous and controversial decade that followed. DeYoung's book paints on a larger canvas from an outsider's viewpoint with a huge number of sources. At times she juxtaposes activities at different points on the globe between Gen Powell and his wife Alma. Many other times she sculpts Powell in bold relief in some of the major events of US and world history, among an almost unbelievable cast of characters that can only be described as 'awe-inspiring'. All of this is captured in stunning prose and laid out in impressive detail, with ultimately an investigative flair that rivals any of the current 'political tell-all' books, although that is not the objective here. A totally absorbing read of over 600 pages!

She also has the advantage of adding on a decade of living and service beyond the autobiography, giving deep details of 21st Century events, the good and the bad, in and around the Bush Administration that we all want to know about. Indeed she even quotes from the Powell autobiography. Based on six long in-depth interviews with Powell, a host of other sources, and apparently access to material such as his Officer Efficiency Reports and other personnel records, this book gives the feelings of General Powell, his wife, and others on a wide range of topics that any politically astute reader will want to know.

Ms DeYoung gets right to the point on Page 1: the Iraqi war, Secretary Powell's role in it, and his departure as Secretary of State from the Bush Administration. Questions abound: Did he support the war? What was the inside story of his UN General Assembly speech in search of an "(Adlai) Stevenson moment"? Did he think of resigning? Was he fired? What about the "farewell call" at the White House and did Powell "unload" on the President? The answers are all here: some surprising, some not surprising, but all are fascinating.

Then she goes back before Powell's birth giving the background of his parents, then tracks Powell's life from birth, through high school, college, the military, and beyond. She juxtaposes Powell's tours in Vietnam with Alma's family life in the US waiting for him. DeYoung's description of Army life, in particular capturing the situation and atmosphere of South Vietnam during Powell's two tours, based on my own experience during the same period in Vietnam, is dead-on and riveting, even for a Vet. After Vietnam and CGSC, he had what "would become the single most valuable learning experience of his life." I'll let you discover what it was, but years later you can still see the effects of it.

There is the inexorable march by Colin Powell into history, being in the right place at the right time for the next promotion or the next war, but being spared the direct spotlight when embarrassing events like TF Barker at My Lai or the Iran-Contra affair (where he was questioned privately, unlike Ollie North and others) popped up on his personal radar screen. Until the George W. Bush administration when many things began to lose their luster. His involvement with people reads like a "who's-who" of current and future historical figures: President Reagan who personally called Powell back from a plum military assignment to Washington, George H.W. Bush, Carlucci, George W. Bush, Cap Weinberger, George Schulz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, the list and the events go on and on in almost dizzying fashion. Has this man worked with ALL of them and done ALL of that? Definitely!!

And of course, the best comes last describing Gen Powell's activities as Chairman, JCS, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State and the many historically significant activities. It is riveting reading and finally gives Powell's view on "the speech", Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, and other hot topic matters. The keen insight into the power politics and maneuvering is remarkable. Karen DeYoung has outdone herself with this biography of a truly great man, General Colin Powell. A loyal soldier who says, "I am who I am". Five ENGROSSING Stars!!

(This review is based on an unabridged EBook digital download with 16 pages of multiple photographs in Adobe Reader 7. Save a tree, download your books in your favorite reader!)

With Colin Powell, what you see is what you get. Karen DeYoung's exhaustive biography of the former secretary of state reveals a man who prioritized loyalty and military values. The respect shown Powell over the years is a reflection of his deep-rooted strength of conviction, subdued yet commanding personality, and sense of decency. A career soldier who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and commanded the 1991 Persian Gulf War victory, Powell dealt in the power of the chain of command. How that served - or, late in his career may have disserved - him and his country is at the crux of this book. DeYoung, an associate editor at The Washington Post, flexes her considerable reportorial muscle as she whisks you past every security checkpoint, and into the midst of sensitive and historic meetings at the highest levels of government. We highly recommend this fascinating and riveting look at an American hero who played the game as best as he could - even though the other guys made the rules.

Like many of the reviewers, I too wish General Powell would continue his public service in elective office. Perhaps now is his greatest opportunity.

The book is a fast read despite its prodigious length. And... despite the title, politics is the subject. A soldier's virtues applied to national politics is the explanation provided by the author to understand the General's positions, and it works. Upon reading, the reader is struck with the simple power of his politics, soldierly non-political... pragmatic.

General Powell's views are practically always in contrast to the ideological neo-conservative platform advocated to the President by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Not against the war in Iraq but aware of its "tactical" challenges, General Powell's persuasive techniques are shown to be exasperating to an idealogue staff and sometimes effective with superiors. These techniques are well practiced by many career military officers.

Recommended for all.

This biography of Colin Powell is very impressive. It details both his career as a serviceman and then as a political appointee for a period totalling almost 50 years.

As a non-American, it is interesting to read a biography of an individual who is both influential in terms of the positions he has held, and a positive role model for many. Colin Powell comes across as a fundamentally decent human being in an environment where power can have a corrosive effect.

I recommend this biography to anyone who wants to know more about Colin Powell and his life and times, as well as to anyone interested in understanding the world events and political influences within which he served the USA.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith