Word: vietnam
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...what Powell has to say about politics or his service in Washington as in what he says about the forces that shaped his character and thinking: his parents, his early attraction to a military career, his brushes with racism in the South, his two tours of duty in Vietnam. Powell, who wrote the book with historian- biographer Joseph E. Persico, retains a serious but not pompous tone, with frequent flashes of self-deprecating wit. A man fond of maxims, Powell is always looking to learn from mistakes as well as successes, and he frames much of his story that...
...following excerpt, Powell's story is divided into four chapters. The first explores his upbringing in the Bronx and how he grew attracted to the military through ROTC. The second part details his first tour of duty in Vietnam, a defining experience that taught him lifelong lessons about the relationship between civilian leaders and their soldiers. The third section deals with the Gulf War, including Powell's sometimes heated relationship with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and why the Bush team did not continue the battle until Saddam was toppled. Finally, Colin Powell muses about the presidency and what he thinks...
...color and pageantry, I would have to be soul-dead not to marvel at the trajectory my life had followed, from an rotc second lieutenant out of ccny to the highest-ranking officer in the U.S. armed forces; from advising a few hundred men in the jungles of Vietnam to responsibility for over 2 million soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines; from growing up with tough kids in the South Bronx to association with leaders from all over the world. My only regret was that I could not do it all over again...
...Vietnamese officer saluted and put out his hand. "Captain Vo Cong Hieu, commanding 2nd Battalion," he said in passable English. Hieu was my Army of the Republic of Vietnam (arvn) counterpart, the man I would be advising. He was short, in his early 30s, with a broad face and an engaging smile. But for the uniform, I would have taken him for a genial schoolteacher...
...would spend nearly 20 years, one way or another, grappling with our experience in this country. And over all that time, Vietnam rarely made much more sense than Captain Hieu's circular reasoning on that January day in 1963. We're here because we're here, because...