| My American Journey
(1995)
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| Front Cover |
Book Details |
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| Genre |
Biography; Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Generals |
| Publication Date |
1995 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.8
mm)
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| Publisher |
Random House |
| Language |
English |
| Extras |
Author autograph; Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
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| Description |
| Colin Powell is the embodiment of the American dream. He was born in Harlem to immigrant parents from Jamaica. He knew the rough life of the streets. He overcame a barely average start at school. Then he joined the Army. The rest is history - but a history that until now has been known only on the surface. Here, for the first time, he himself tells us how it happened, in a memoir distinguished by a heartfelt love of country and family, warm good humor, and a soldier's directness. He writes of the anxieties and missteps as well as the triumphs that marked his rise to four-star general, National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mastermind of Desert Storm, and now the man the country would most like to draft as President just as it drafted General Eisenhower before him in 1952. We see Powell growing up, getting into mischief, going to church with his father, working in a bottling plant, joining the ROTC. We follow him as a green young lieutenant on his first foreign posting in Germany, where his ascent is nearly aborted by a blunder on the day he is assigned to guard an atomic cannon. We go on patrol with him into the jungles of Vietnam, where he is wounded, and then, in the first surprise turn of his career, into the every-bit-as-dangerous thickets of Washington bureaucracy as a Pentagon aide in the Carter administration. We see how he handled the humiliations inflicted on him as a black soldier traveling in the Deep South and the unnerving challenges he faced as a battalion commander in Korea, where the army guarding the border with North Korea was plagued by drugs, drinking, a lack of discipline, and racial tension. We are edge-of-the-seat spectators to some of the great international dramas of our time - Desert Storm, the invasion of Panama, the dark dealings of Iran-contra with Ollie North and Bill Casey, the climactic meetings with Gorbachev. And we are present also at the encounters with President Clinton on the controversial questio |
| Personal Details |
| Rating |
0 |
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| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
E840.5.P68 |
| Dewey |
355/.0092 |
| ISBN |
0679432965 |
| Edition |
[1st ed.] |
| Cover Price |
$26.95 |
| No. of Pages |
643 |
| First Edition |
Yes |
| Rare |
No |
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| Notes/Review |
This is one of those books where I need to be careful to review the book rather than critique the man.
My brother gave me a signed copy of this book shortly after it was published. It has been sitting on my shelf all these years and I finally decided to read it. I'm pretty certain I'd have a better opinion of the book had I read it all those years ago. Powell's history since then has cast a different light on things.
I have a habit when reading non-fiction of using pieces of post-it notes to flag pages to note later on. I only used one this time. At the top of page 285 Powell talks about useful lessons he learned during the KAL 007 incident (when the Soviets shot down a Korean airliner). "Don't be stampeded by first reports. Don't let your judgments run ahead of your facts. And, even with supposed facts in hand, question them if they do not add up." I wish he'd have applied these lessons as Secretary of State under George W. Bush.
I found the book interesting and easy to read. He sticks to a chronological order except for an introductory story of him and his wife surviving a helicopter crash. His career at the point of writing was fundamentally non-political. He ends with an epilogue where he talks about his political views, as by then he had been courted by both parties for higher office.
And this is where I switch from the book to the man. He repeatedly stresses his personal values and how they affected his life. One of those values is honesty. So it was a big disappointment to me when he made his speech to the UN regarding Iraq; when he lied to the world. After reading the book, I think I have some insight as to why he did this. Loyalty is another of his stated values. And during his career, he worked closely with Dick Cheney. Powell admired Cheney. I find Cheney one of the least admirable figures in recent US history, but of course I never worked for him or with him as Powell did. I can see how a man who values loyalty and being in the orbit of a man such as Cheney might tend to lead one astray.
His little epilogue bothered me a bit. In it, he recalls all the liberal values and the liberal policies that his parents supported and that enabled him to become what he was. But he turns his back on those values, seems to say that we shouldn't continue to pursue them. Also, throughout the last third of the book, he keeps bringing up his position on gay rights: he's squarely against them. He considers race "what you are" while sexual orientation is "what you do," as if it's a choice.
Finally, he takes a look at the world as it was when he finished it and tried to make a few predictions of the future. Predicting the future is hard, and it's no surprise that he fails. He wrote the book at a time when the USA was not at war anywhere in the world and thought it was good. Disappointing, then, that afterwards he went against his core principles and helped get us into the two longest wars in our history.
While I find his politics misguided given his own history, this book does cover the big events he helped shape, and those events turned out well. We can only look back on those times and wish he'd have remained the man he was when he wrote the book rather than acting in a way that, for many, taints his history. |
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