It is difficult to imagine a more formidable figure than Colin Powell: Army general, National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and for a time the odds-on favorite to send a sitting President into retirement. He is also a contradictory figure: a warrior not eager to use force, a moral man who is not a prude, a man who has received a knighthood yet retained the common touch, and a believer in civilian control who would confound his civilian bosses on issues he deemed important. His biography makes him more human and clarifies the factors that propelled a mediocre and unmotivated student through a distinguished Army career and into national prominence.
As a cadet in the ROTC program at the City College of New York, and as a member of the elite Pershing Rifles there, Powell discovered a knack for leadership and a love for order and discipline that he did not know he possessed. In that setting he assumed leadership positions for the first time in his life. As an African American he might have found his race a barrier to advancement, but it was not so in the Army by then. Civilians do not always understand that the military was among the first major American institutions to bring down the barriers of racism, and they were significant ones. Recent racial incidents show that the battle is not yet won, but the military takes equal opportunity very seriously -- to Colin Powell's benefit. The incidents of racism he did experience were isolated, generally off post, and dealt with without much apparent rancor. If people were stupid enough to be bigoted, well, that was their problem and not his.
General Powell's Army career as chronicled here shows him to be typical of the best officers of his generation. Like them he was profoundly affected by his Vietnam experience -- particularly by the loss of a close friend. The lesson to be drawn is not that nations should not resort to the force of arms, but that they should do so reluctantly but with overwhelming force. It was a lesson the country would employ in the Persian Gulf with great effect. He learned well the lessons of soldiering: take care of your people, pay attention to details, and watch your back. These lessons would serve him well in his bureaucratic assignments.
The book is noteworthy for what it does not say as well as for what it does. It is not a kiss-and-tell effort, and no one would get on the afternoon talk shows based on its contents. Powell (with Joseph Persico, a prominent coauthor whose precise role is not detailed) adopts a style that is simple, direct, and without rhetorical flourishes. There is an old-fashioned, even courtly, tone to the book that reduces its edge and reminds one of an earlier era. People that may have disappointed the general along the way are treated gently, and skewered more effectively thereby. The image of the late Defense Secretary Les Aspin putting away thirteen hors d'oeuvres (the general was keeping count) while King Hussein of Jordan "had to carry on a monologue" will remain with the reader when other details have fled from memory.
Critics have debated the motivation for such an autobiography at this time, wondering if it is a financial enterprise or the intellectual underpinnings of a presidential campaign. It is probably a bit of both, and also a story he wants to share. As Powell disarmingly says on the fifth line of the book, "The commercial prospects could not be ignored." The campaign biography aspect is less obvious, and may well have been intended for long-term political benefits rather than as the first salvo for the 1996 election. There are no blockbuster revelations, but readers are left with a feeling of empathy with the author that should translate well into future political support.
Occasional instances of phrases inserted for apparently political purposes are rare enough to stand out. For example, in the context of discussing his own Jamaican heritage and the fact that West Indians emigrated to the United States willingly in the same manner as did immigrants from Europe, he adds, "I appreciate and admire the impulses that have led many African-Americans as well to reclaim the culture that was stolen from them and to draw spiritual sustenance from it." One wonders if this sentiment is expressed to defuse a notion in the African-American community that Powell is suspect because of his success, in their eyes, as "a product of those trickle-down conservative Republicans Reagan and Bush."
Perhaps more obviously political is the final epilogue, in which he stakes out moderate positions on every issue discussed, announcing, "I am a fiscal conservative with a social conscience" and "I distrust rigid ideology from any direction, and I am discovering that many Americans feel just as I do." These are hardly innovative policy pronouncements, but they likely do reflect his opinions. That they are also reassuring to a populace weary of domestic strife and wary of international overcommitment will not hurt Powell's popularity.
At a time when political institutions have fallen into public disfavor, the popular support
for Colin Powell is a true phenomenon. If some of his good sense and basic values rub off on the
political system, whatever his role in it, it can only be for the good. This book is more important
for understanding the man than for predicting his policy preferences, but that is a significant step.
It is also a good read.
John Allen Williams is a member of
the Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago and
Executive Director of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and
Society. He is Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the National
Strategy Forum in Chicago. 
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