Colin Powell’s career traced a remarkable arc through the late twentieth century. Commissioned through ROTC at City College of New York, he served two combat tours in Vietnam and steadily rose through the Army’s ranks. By 1989, he became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, directing U.S. forces during the invasion of Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War. In 2001, he broke another barrier as the first Black U.S. Secretary of State, shaping foreign policy in the early years of the twenty-first century.