Shunning opportunity

Colin Powell's book My American Journey is a fascinating and captivating success story of an African American who, in his military career, rose to a four-star general, with his last assignment being chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under President Bush's administration. Earlier, he had been national security adviser, a cabinet-level post, to Ronald Reagan. But it was the Gulf War (Jan. 17-Feb. 28, 1991) that turned Colin Powell into a legend in the annals of American military history.

In a book review appearing in The New York Times, Colin Powell's book was called "a great American success story". Another review referred to him as "the embodiment of the American dream".

From the book's 22 chapters and epilogue, I took note of conspicuous or unusual events described.

The story goes that the U.S. Navy in 1983 had established a wound laboratory at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland to train medical students in the treatment of battlefield injuries. To aid the students in their experimentation, dogs were sacrificed by being anesthetized, then shot.

Casper Weinberger, the secretary of defense, who owned a collie named Kiltie, was bitterly upset at hearing the news and ordered Colin Powell, then military assistant to the defense secretary, to have the program canceled. Editorial writers praised Weinberger's action, calling him a hero.

So we see that in America, not only are pet lovers and the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals organization happy, but most of all, the dogs themselves must feel fortunate that they were saved from scientific experimentation, whatever its merits.

Another point I noted is that Colin Powell, during the Nixon -Kennedy presidential election in November 1960, while serving in Germany as a lieutenant, cast his absentee ballot for JFK. Now he is a supporter of the Dole-Kemp ticket. Men can change.

But most interesting are the closing paragraphs of the book's afterword, where it is revealed that, on the one hand, several Republican leaders urged Powell to enter the presidential race. However, on the other hand, a delegation of congressional Democrats asked to meet with Powell to pursue the idea of challenging Bill Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

Now it has been proven that towering personal values are not the monopoly of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who once had declined nomination for the candidacy in a similar race during the 1950s.

Colin Powell's answer is admirable, as he wrote: "Despite all the enthusiasm and encouragement, which was flattering, and the historic opportunity to serve, my answer remained `No'."

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