Powell watches rescue choppers overhead
after a helicopter crash in Vietnam; with a
high-ranking Soviet officer during a visit to
the U.S. by the Soviet Army.
“Look,” he continues, his voice lowering a touch, “Alma
and I have always felt that you should try to give something
to people, to try to serve your community. It would not be
right for us as leaders of America’s Promise to, instead of
devoting time and energy to these youth efforts, stay away
from it and go and play golf. We feel it’s an obligation that
we have.”
“As long as I’ve known him it has always been with him,”
says Lawrence Wilkerson, who has known Powell for nearly
two decades and served as his chief of staff at the State
Department. “He believes intellectually and intuitively that
you owe something back.” Over time, even military service
wasn’t ultimately satisfying for Powell, says Wilkerson, who
has shared in community work with Powell in the Washington area. “Even more, it became finding and helping young
people, particularly minority young people who are still held
back in this country. His focus is on kids from around ages
8 to 16, where they’re not quite lost yet, where it might help
them on the largest scale possible. That’s his bailiwick—it’s
what he likes to do and it’s from the heart and soul.”
POV on the GOP
But as with all complex figures, what drives
Powell cannot be reduced to a simple equa-
tion. He is legendary for his talents as a communicator and
tactician, for being as charismatic and persuasive as he can be
dispassionate and selective about revealing his motivations.
“I think one of the driving forces for him now, whether
conscious or subconscious,” Wilkerson adds candidly, “is
to attempt to restore some of what I think he believes is
a tarnished reputation, the nadir of which was the Feb. 5
presentation at the United Nations” prior to the invasion
of Iraq. To this day, questions linger as to why Powell’s
presentation on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction turned out to be built on a stockpile of fictions.
Both Powell and Wilkerson have suggested
publicly that they were kept in the dark
about serious doubts inside the administration concerning the intelligence. “Since I
share that nadir with him,” Wilkerson says,
“I think I bring to that some more understanding, psychologically and otherwise,
than perhaps other people would. That’s
got to be part of it, him thinking: ‘I’m doing
everything I can do, at the frenetic pace I’m
doing it, because I need to make sure that
my legacy is solid.’” Wilkerson says Powell
would deny that vigorously, however. “He
would say, ‘My reputation
doesn’t need restoring’—
he’s said that to me
many times.”
Yet, Powell’s redoubled efforts are
likely no less personal
in terms of his long-held concern for social
justice. In 1996, he made
waves with a speech at
the Republican National
Convention in San Di-
ego, calling for opportu-
nities for minorities and
women and declaring that his chosen party “must always
be the party of inclusion.”
More than a decade later, Powell offers a frank progress report. The GOP is “doing better,” he says, “but is not
where it needs to be.” Although he is no more approving
of the other party’s track record in this realm, he says the
facts are self-evident in the Democrats’ hold on a majority
of black voters. “The Republican Party has never been able
to get inside the black community and understand the frustrations and fears that exist there. It still has not met the
promise that I laid out in ’96. It still has a lot of work to do.”
Powell’s own array of work includes active involvement
with the Center for Public Policy named for him at his alma
mater, CCNY, where more than 90 percent of the students
are minorities and immigrants, 50 percent of them born in
other countries. The program there “is particularly dear to
my heart, because I was one of those immigrant kids,” he
says. “It’s very exciting to go up there and see these kids—I
never cease to be absolutely turned on by them.” Powell recalls one recent visit with a student from Russia who came to
America seven years ago. “He didn’t speak a word of English.
He’d been homeless, living under a bridge.” Powell pauses a
beat. “Now he’s a Rhodes Scholar.”
