African-American, the first ROTC graduate, and, at fifty-two, the youngest officer to serve in the position.

General Powell's tenure as Chairman coincided with the end of the Cold War; his chairmanship saw more change in the world than that of any of his predecessors. Powell was the principal architect of the reorientation of US strategy and the reduction of the armed forces in response to the changed strategic environment. He directed the most significant change in national military strategy since the

late 1940s, devising a strategy which focused on regional and humanitarian crises rather than on the Soviet Union. Powell's concept of a "base force" sufficient to maintain the United States' superpower status won Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney's and President Bush's support for a twenty-five percent reduction in the size of the armed forces.

The first Chairman to serve his whole tenure under the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense reforms, Powell devoted considerable energy to promoting joint

culture in order to enhance the services' ability to fight together as a team. He guided the development of doctrine for joint warfare and was the driving force behind the expansion of the Atlantic Command's responsibilities, which transformed it from a principally naval headquarters into one with responsibility for ground and air forces based in the continental United States as well as East Coast naval forces. When the new US Atlantic Command (USACOM) came into existence on 1 October 1993, the day after Powell's retirement, it was a joint command designed to meet the military requirements of the postCold War world.

During Powell's chairmanship, the US Armed Forces made over two dozen operational deployments. An attempted coup against the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on 3 October 1989 almost postponed Powell's welcoming ceremony at the Pentagon. Over the next two months, the Chairman worked with the Commander in Chief of US Southern Command to develop a contingency plan that would provide a large force should President Bush decide to intervene in Panama. After Panama declared a state of war with the United States and Panamanian soldiers killed an American officer and manhandled another officer and his wife, President Bush ordered the deployment of approximately 14,000 troops to Panama in late December. They joined almost 13,000 troops already there to execute Operation JUST CAUSE, which resulted in the defeat of the Panamanian forces and the downfall of Noriega.

General Powell played a central role in the preparation for and conduct of the Persian Gulf War. In response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, President Bush ordered the deployment of some 250,000 US troops to Saudi Arabia in Operation DESERT SHIELD. Powell advised keeping all options open, exerting diplomatic and eco

nomic pressure while building up sufficient forces in the region to assure quick victory if the United States and its coalition partners concluded that military action was necessary. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not withdraw his forces from Kuwait, Powell endorsed the President's decision to launch an offensive-Operation DESERT STORMin January 1991. After it became clear in late February that the coalition forces had achieved an overwhelming victory, he supported the President's decision to suspend hostilities. The Persian Gulf victory boosted the military's standing with the American public, and General Powell became a wellknown and popular figure. For his leadership during the war, he received a Congressional Gold Medal, struck in his honor, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In addition to the combat operations in Panama and the Persian Gulf, US forces participated in a number of rescue and relief operations during Powell's chairmanship, including humanitarian relief operations to provide assistance to famine victims in Somalia and to victims of ethnic warfare in Bosnia in 1992 and 1993. While supporting limited use of US forces to contain the crisis in the Balkans and to assist the United Nations forces on the ground there, General Powell was reluctant to commit US forces to intervene directly in the war and thus become one of the belligerents. He forcefully argued against the commitment of US ground troops in either a peacemaking or combat role. In internal debates in the Bush and Clinton administrations and in published articles, he advocated the use of US forces in combat only when there were clear political objectives and the political willingness to commit sufficient resources to achieve these objectives. Although there was a perception of an uneasy relationship between the military and the new Clinton administration, especially over

the issue of homosexuals in the military, General Powell enjoyed a close working relationship with President William J. Clinton.

When General Powell retired on 30 September 1993, the role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been substantially enhanced due to his aggressive exercise of the expanded powers granted the Chairman in the Goldwater-Nichols Act. His tenure as Chairman subsequently became the subject of debate among some scholars and commentators concerned with the role of the military in policy development.

At his retirement General Powell was awarded a second Presidential Medal of Freedom, this one with distinction. Later that year Queen Elizabeth II made him an honorary Knight Commander of the Bath. In retirement, Powell wrote a best-selling autobiography and became a frequent public speaker. As a member of the three-man delegation, headed by former President Jimmy Carter, that President Clinton sent to Haiti in September 1994, he played a key role in negotiating the peaceful transfer of power from the

military dictatorship to the elected president. Powell co-chaired the Presidents' Summit for America's Future in 1997 and subsequently launched and became chairman of America's Promise-The Alliance for Youth, a national organization to mobilize volunteer efforts to assist young people in developing the character and skills needed to become successful adults. A trustee of Howard University and a director of the United Negro College Fund, he also served on the board of governors of The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, on the advisory board of the Children's Health Fund, and on corporate boards. In 1998 he received the US Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award for embodying the values expressed in the Academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country," and in 1999 the Air Force Academy awarded him the Thomas D. White Defense Award for his contributions to national defense. Powell was a member of the US delegation of observers for the 1999 presidential election in Nigeria, one of the steps in that nation's transition to democratic rule.