Gen. Powell Faces Toughest Test in Gulf Deployment : Military: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs is widely respected. But some regard him as a “political general.”

At a small office party in early 1980, a 42-year-old Army colonel named Colin Powell was toasted by his boss, Energy Secretary Charles Duncan, as “a guy who’s going to go all the way.”

Everyone in the room nodded sagely. There were even some predictions that the highly intelligent, obviously suave young colonel might someday rise to become a four-star general--possibly Army chief of staff.

In the 10 years since then, however, Colin Luther Powell has managed to surpass even those expectations. Today he is not only a four-star general but chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The man chiefly responsible for directing Operation Desert Shield, the massive U.S. deployment of troops, ships and air power to counter Iraqi aggression in the Middle East, he is one of the most respected officials in the federal government.

Clearly, he is unusual: a ghetto child with a “C” average who excelled beyond his wildest dreams; such a political pro--despite his uniform--that everyone in Washington seems to like him; a military officer who appears equally comfortable with Presidents and raw recruits; a proud black man whose businesslike demeanor helps to soothe racial tensions.

Yet, even Powell’s admirers acknowledge that he has never previously faced any test of his abilities as strenuous as the one that confronts him today. In overseeing a commitment of tens of thousands of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia, he has landed in the middle of the biggest American military operation since Vietnam--and what may become the biggest political challenge since that embittered era.

And despite the extraordinarily positive image he enjoys in Washington, two potentially significant criticisms have been made of the way he operates.

First, like President John F. Kennedy’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, who also served in the White House before becoming chairman, Powell is frequently tagged with a derogatory label: political general.

Within the military, at least, this term frequently is used to characterize someone who cares more about politics than defense and whose knowledge and experience in the actual management of military conflicts may be deficient.

Second, some ranking military officials suggest that Powell may sometimes respect his civilian bosses too much and may be too anxious to please them. Pentagon insiders say they remember a few occasions when Powell failed to deliver tough advice to the civilian brass when serving under Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger during the Reagan Administration.

In one instance, Powell was asked whether he believed “the emperor always has clothes,” and he replied, “That’s right.”

Nevertheless, Powell’s success over the years has been so remarkable that after 10 months in the nation’s top military job, he is being seriously mentioned by Washington insiders as a potential candidate for national office--possibly even the nation’s first black President.

“In every sense of the word, Colin Powell is a leader,” declares former White House Chief of Staff Kenneth M. Duberstein.

Ironically, Powell’s task may be made more difficult by the incredibly high expectations that so many people now have for this son of Jamaican immigrants. Unlike the actions of many previous chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, whose names and faces were virtually unknown to the vast majority of Americans outside the military, Powell’s performance is being closely watched.

As for Powell himself, he has plunged into the current crisis with genuine enthusiasm. While he still shares some of the skepticism of his predecessors about the use of American military force in the post-Vietnam era, he clearly supports President Bush’s decision to commit U.S. troops in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

In fact, when Bush visited the Pentagon last week, Powell solemnly told the President during a private meeting that he felt honored to be serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs in this crucial time in American history.

Powell has approached this task with the same meticulous preparation that has been his trademark during years in a variety of jobs. These jobs have included two stints in Vietnam, several mid-level Pentagon posts, commands in South Korea and West Germany and several political positions such as adviser to Duncan, top aide to Weinberger and chief national security adviser to President Reagan.

As he has done throughout his career, Powell consulted widely with other top officials in the Administration and Congress before he committed himself to supporting the Middle East initiative. Those discussions took several days, causing some people to conclude mistakenly that he was opposed to military intervention.

While such consultations can provide Powell with valuable information, they also serve to smooth the way for whatever decision he makes. As one former colleague explains it, “He doesn’t take a major step without consulting everybody who might bitch and moan.”

Col. Bill Smullen, a Powell aide, said the general did not embrace the Middle East mission until he was completely satisfied that he understood the military objectives, how many troops would be needed, what were the chances of success and whether the American people would support it.

Once he had settled those matters in his own mind, he advised Bush to proceed.

The questions that Powell asked prior to committing himself to the operation were reminiscent of the stiff criteria for military intervention that Weinberger laid down during his tenure as secretary of defense under Reagan. But experts insist that Powell is not nearly as reluctant about using military force as the former defense secretary.

“Weinberger ruled out military force,” says Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Powell feels if you are going to be involved, you’d better be fully prepared for almost any eventuality.”

Powell’s bias toward preparedness is reflected in the massive amounts of personnel and equipment--including members of the military reserves--that are being mobilized for Operation Desert Shield, according to McCain.

It also was reflected in his handling of his first crisis, in Panama. When a group of Panamanian officers sought U.S. support for a hastily organized coup against Gen. Manuel A. Noriega last October, Powell advised Bush against it. But he later advocated the commitment of 26,000 American troops in December to oust the Panamanian dictator.

In preparing for such an operation, Powell is known as a quick study. He proved it beyond any doubt in 1979 when he worked for Duncan. A former Defense Department official, Duncan became energy secretary at the height of an oil crisis and asked Powell to help him to set up his office. Even though Powell knew nothing about the Energy Department, a co-worker recalls, “he read up, and within 10 days he was an operating force.”

Likewise, in recent days, he has demonstrated a mastery of the strategic and logistic realities facing U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. In his briefing for the news media shortly after the operation began, he fielded all questions without referring to notes.

Powell has always kept his cool in tense situations.

One aide remembers how the general kept all his routine commitments--even the small, unimportant ones--on the day before U.S. troops were scheduled to invade Panama last December. This included a long-scheduled session with a teen-ager who had been assigned by her teacher to interview “someone important” and a promised luncheon with a Navy midshipman with whom he had bet on the Army-Navy game.

“If you had been in the same room that day, you would never have guessed that a major military operation was scheduled to occur the following morning,” the aide said. “I’ve never seen his temperament or style change in times of crisis.”

His tenure so far as chairman of the Joint Chiefs has been anything but routine. Powell had not even been formally sworn into office when his first crisis occurred last October--the unsuccessful coup attempt in Panama. Since then, besides overseeing the U.S. invasion of Panama, he has supervised the intervention during a coup attempt in the Philippines and the rescue of Americans in Liberia by U.S. helicopter pilots.

Although none of these operations was sufficient to test the limit of his abilities, he has won high praise from Democrats as well as Republicans for his performance so far. In fact, retired Pentagon spokesman Fred Hoffman thinks Powell is likely to be the most successful chairman since Kennedy’s Taylor.

“He has good political instincts,” said Smullen. “At his level, you need to be sensitive to the politics of the situation.”

Duberstein, who served at the White House with Powell, recalls that Powell was always careful to check how foreign policy decisions would affect domestic policy and politics.

One measure of Powell’s unusual success in the political arena is that leaders of both parties genuinely like him.

Hoffman witnessed Powell’s popularity with members of both parties a few years ago when he accompanied the general to an academic conference attended by dozens of “Democratic and Republican warhorses.” When Powell entered the room, Hoffman said, he was warmly embraced by virtually everyone, including the Democrats.

But McCain insists that Powell, unlike most political generals, never succumbs to the temptation to make policy himself. “I’ve never seen him overstep the boundaries of his responsibility,” he says.

And unlike Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, Reagan’s renegade military adviser who played a key role in the Iran-Contra scandal, Powell never became an advocate of the ideology of the conservative Republicans for whom he has worked. In fact, he refuses to disclose his party affiliation.

Still there are those who feel that Powell is not forceful enough when it comes to challenging political leaders. Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash.), a prominent member of the House Defense appropriation subcommittee, says Powell deserves some of the blame for the Administration’s failure to develop a new military strategy for the post-Cold War period.

Nor has Powell lobbied hard enough for the Administration’s priorities--such as the B-2 bomber--to suit some pro-defense lawmakers such as Dicks.

It is Powell’s race as well as his political savvy that has caught the eye of the those politicians who see him as a potential national candidate. Born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Powell sees his success as an example of what minorities can achieve with hard work.

Flying aboard Air Force One with Duberstein in 1989, the two men--then the President’s top two aides--shared a laugh about how far they had come humble origins--Powell, a poor black kid from the Bronx; Duberstein, a poor Jewish boy from Brooklyn.

“Only in America,” Powell remarked.

A student of black history, Powell was clearly conscious of the breakthrough he achieved when he became the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs. In a speech to black journalists shortly after he was selected, he said it would have been impossible “without the sacrifices of those black soldiers who served this great nation in war for 200 years previously.”

Surprisingly, however, race is something that Powell seldom ever mentions.

“He expects you to take him as he is,” says Karl Feldbaum, a former colleague at the Defense and Energy departments. “You tend to be color-blind when you are dealing with him.”

Powell’s ghetto upbringing left him with a unique ability to bridge racial and ethic differences in the people he meets, according to his friends. “He takes each person de novo . He doesn’t stereotype individuals,” said Feldbaum.

He was born April 5, 1937, to Luther and Maud Powell, who had come to the United States from Jamaica in search of opportunity. Like many immigrant parents, his mother and father imbued him with a conviction that he could accomplish anything with hard work.

“That’s the way we were brought up,” says Grace Watson, Powell’s cousin. “You succeeded on your own merits. There never was an expectation that any of us would fail.”

Watson, who still keeps in touch with her younger cousin, says the general has the same pleasant temperament he had as a boy many years ago when their families got together for Sunday dinners.

“There are some people who, if you give then a limousine and a title, goodness gracious, they are impossible,” she says. “He is not like that. He has always been a very nice person.”

This quality has served Powell well in his climb up the military ladder.

Deanne Siemer, a former Pentagon official who worked with Powell, says it has always been apparent to her that he was going to be a big success. As she puts it, “It was clear that he had the skill to rise through the ranks without stepping on people’s necks.”

Still, it was not until Powell entered the Army that he began to excel. At Morris High School in the Bronx and later at tuition-free City College of New York City, he was at best a mediocre student who got mostly Cs and Ds. His only A was in ROTC.

In the army, Powell hit his stride and began to move up quickly in the ranks. He became a White House Fellow in 1972--a move that set him on a course to becoming a political general. As a participant in the prestigious program that seeks to train future leaders in government and business, Powell was assigned to work for the Office of Management and Budget under Weinberger and his deputy, Frank C. Carlucci.

Those contacts paid off handsomely for him in later years.

When Weinberger became secretary of defense, he prevailed on Powell to serve for three years as his top military aide. Then, when Carlucci was appointed Reagan’s national security adviser in the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal, he persuaded Powell to become his deputy. When Carlucci succeeded Weinberger as secretary of defense, Powell took over as Reagan’s national security adviser.

Like Weinberger and Carlucci, other high-ranking Republicans have been so smitten with Powell’s ability that they see him as a potential asset to their party as it strives to appeal to minorities, who have traditionally been identified with the Democrats.

Privately, some prominent Republicans have dreamed up a possible scenario in which Bush turns to Powell as his vice presidential running mate in 1992, replacing Dan Quayle.

Many of Powell’s acquaintances insist he could never be persuaded to get into politics. “That’s a grubby life, and he knows it,” said one friend, who declined to be identified.

But when Powell himself was asked recently by ABC-TV’s Sam Donaldson whether he has any ambition to seek national office, he did not rule it out. “I have no political ambitions at the moment,” he replied. “I just want to be the best chairman I can.”