 | Colin Powell has served four presidents over 20 years. "General Powell is an American hero, an American example and a great American story," said current US President George W Bush |
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 | All of Powell's children have obtained degrees from the more competitive, A-list US universities. Daughter Linda, 36, seen here with her proud dad, is an actress |
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 | The 64-year-old's main form of relaxation is to don overalls and tinker with old Volvos in his garage |
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Colin Powell may well have been America’s highest ranking general, but today he often finds himself playing the country’s main peace envoy.
His recent trip to India and Pakistan to sell US policy is more a measure of his skills as a pragmatic arm-twister and negotiator than as a warrior who flaunts his country’s brute strength.
In fact, prior to the September 11th terror attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, Powell’s personal credo seemed so out of step with the more vocal right-wing faction of the Bush administration that commentators were describing him as the odd man out. Now that the US has to sell its anti-terror foreign policy to the rest of the free world, this multilateralist, centrist and social moderate doesn’t seem quite as much of a square peg as commentators and insiders thought.
A born conciliator with a varied background, 64-year-old Powell is the perfect person to push American foreign policy because he fits in just about everywhere. he seems as comfortable tinkering in his garage as his is being addressed as "cousin Colin" by the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
To read the complete story about Colin Powell, and see photos documenting the life of the American statesman, see this week’s HELLO! magazine, on sale now.
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