As secretary of state, Powell gave a presentation to the United Nations Security Council regarding the rationale for the Iraq War, but he later admitted that the speech contained substantial inaccuracies.

During the second tour in Vietnam he was decorated with the Soldier's Medal for bravery after he survived a helicopter crash and single-handedly rescued three others, including division commander Major General Charles M. Gettys, from the burning wreckage.

An estimated 350 to 500 unarmed civilians died in My Lai ... MAJ Colin Powell, a recently assigned Deputy G3, investigated the allegations described in the [Glen] letter.

[42] Emerson insisted his troops train at night to fight a possible North Korean attack, and made them repeatedly watch the television film Brian's Song to promote racial harmony.

[17] Powell subsequently served as the junior military assistant to deputy secretaries of defense Charles Duncan and Graham Claytor, receiving a promotion to brigadier general on 1 June 1979.

[29]: 590 Powell retained his role as the now-senior military assistant into the presidency of Ronald Reagan, serving under Claytor's successor as deputy secretary of defense, Frank Carlucci.

[46]: 342–49 [47] In November 1985, Powell solicited and delivered to Weinberger a legal assessment that the transfer of Hawk missiles to Israel or Iran, without Congressional notification, would be "a clear violation" of the law.

[13] In April 1989, after his tenure with the National Security Council, Powell was promoted to four-star general under President George H. W. Bush and briefly served as the Commander in Chief, Forces Command (FORSCOM), headquartered at Fort McPherson, Georgia, overseeing all active U.S. Army regulars, U.S. Army Reserve, and National Guard units in the Continental U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.

He became the third general since World War II to reach four-star rank without ever serving as a division commander,[45] joining Dwight D. Eisenhower and Alexander Haig.

[56] During this time, Powell oversaw responses to 28 crises, including the invasion of Panama in 1989 to remove General Manuel Noriega from power and Operation Desert Storm in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Soon after Powell's resignation, on 3–4 October 1993, the Battle of Mogadishu, the aim of which was to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, was initiated and ended in disaster.

A 2004 report by the Iraq Survey Group concluded that the evidence that Powell offered to support the allegation that the Iraqi government possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) was inaccurate.

[108] Citing numerous anonymous Iraqi defectors, Powell asserted that "there can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more".

[109][110] Britain's Channel 4 News reported soon afterwards that a British intelligence dossier that Powell had referred to as a "fine paper" during his presentation had been based on old material and plagiarized an essay by American graduate student Ibrahim al-Marashi.

Powell later recounted how Vice President Dick Cheney had joked with him before he gave the speech, telling him, "You've got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points".

[118] Again invoking "the JINSA crowd" Powell also attributed the decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003 to the neoconservative belief that regime change in Baghdad "was a first and necessary stop on the road to peace in Jerusalem".

[121] Once Saddam Hussein had been deposed, Powell's renewed role was to once again establish a working international coalition, this time to assist in the rebuilding of post-war Iraq.

On 13 September 2004, Powell testified before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee,[122] acknowledging that the sources who provided much of the information in his February 2003 UN presentation were "wrong" and that it was "unlikely" that any stockpiles of WMDs would be found.

[123] Additionally, Powell was critical of other aspects of U.S. foreign policy in the past, such as its support for the 1973 Chilean coup d'état that deposed the democratically elected president Salvador Allende in favor of Augusto Pinochet.

"[125] In the Hainan Island incident of 1 April 2001, a United States US EP-3 surveillance aircraft collided mid-air with a Chinese Shenyang J-8 jet fighter over the South China Sea.

These include restoration of morale to psychologically demoralized professional diplomats, leadership of the international HIV/AIDS initiative, resolving a crisis with China, and blocking efforts to tie Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Blumenthal added that "The foreign relations committee has discovered that Bolton made a highly unusual request and gained access to 10 intercepts by the National Security Agency.

[147] Powell gained attention in 2004 when, in a conversation with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, he reportedly referred to neoconservatives within the Bush administration as "fucking crazies".

[148] In a September 2006 letter to John McCain, Powell expressed opposition to President Bush's push for military tribunals of those formerly and currently classified as enemy combatants.

[149] At the 2007 Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado,[150] Powell stated that he had spent two and a half hours explaining to President Bush "the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers".

[151] In a 2008 interview on CNN, Powell reiterated his support for the 2003 decision to invade Iraq in the context of his endorsement of Barack Obama, stating: "My role has been very, very straightforward.

[153] Following his endorsement of Barack Obama in October 2008, however, Powell praised General David Petraeus and U.S. troops, as well as the Iraqi government, concluding that "it's starting to turn around".

[159] Later in a 12 December 2008, CNN interview with Fareed Zakaria, Powell reiterated his belief that during the last few months of the campaign, Palin pushed the Republican party further to the right and had a polarizing impact on it.

Commenting on Clinton in a general sense, he mused that "Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris", and in another email stated "I would rather not have to vote for her, although she is a friend I respect".

[175] In an interview in October 2019, Powell warned that the GOP needed to "get a grip" and put the country before their party, standing up to then-president Trump rather than worrying about political fallout.