Kay & Britt Rice Lecture Series - 11/5/2003
Colin L. Powell
Colin L. Powell was nominated by President Bush on December
16, 2000, as Secretary of State. After being unanimously confirmed by the
United States Senate, he was sworn in as the 65th Secretary of State on January
20, 2001.
Before his appointment, Secretary Powell was the chairman of
America’s
Promise – The Alliance for Youth, a national nonprofit organization dedicated
to mobilizing people from every sector of American life to build the character
and competence of young people.
Secretary Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years,
during which time he held a myriad of command and staff positions and rose to
the rank of 4-star General. He was Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs from December 1987 to January 1989. His last assignment, from
October 1, 1989 to September 30, 1993, was as the 12th Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense.
During this time, he oversaw 28 crises, including Operation Desert Storm in the
1991 Persian Gulf War.
Following his retirement, Secretary Powell wrote his
best-selling autobiography, My American Journey, which was published in 1995.
Additionally, he pursued a career as a public speaker, addressing audiences
across the country and abroad.
Secretary Powell was born in New York
City on April 5, 1937, and was raised in the South
Bronx. His parents, Luther and Maud Powell, immigrated to the United States from Jamaica. Secretary Powell was
educated in the New York City
public schools, graduating from the City College of New York (CCNY), where he
earned a bachelor’s degree in geology. He also participated in the ROTC program
at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation
in June 1958. His further academic achievements include a Master of Business
Administration degree from George
Washington University.
Secretary Powell is the recipient of numerous United States
and foreign military awards and decorations.
Secretary Powell’s civilian awards include two Presidential
Medals of Freedom, the President’s Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold
Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal, and the Secretary of
Energy Distinguished Service Medal. Several schools and other institutions have
been named in his honor, and he holds honorary degrees from universities and
colleges across the country.
Qian Qichen
Qian Qichen was born in Tianjin in 1928. He is a native of Shanghai, China.
Qian joined the Communist Party of China in 1942 when he studied at a secondary
school in Shanghai
and engaged in the underground work among the students. He soon became the
secretary of a Party cell. After 1945, he was a leading member in charge of the
Party's underground activities in Shanghai's
secondary schools and he worked with the Communist Youth League of China in Shanghai. Qian's
diplomatic career started in the 1950s. In 1953, he worked with the Communist
Youth League of China Central Committee. In 1954, he studied in the Central Komsomol
School of the former Soviet
Union. From 1955 onward, he served successively as Second
Secretary in the Embassy of the People’s Republic of ChinaChina. In 1972,
he served as Counselor in the Chinese Embassy in the former Soviet
Union. In 1974, he was Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China
to Guinea and concurrently
to Guinea-Bissau.
in the former Soviet Union, Division Director and Deputy Director-General of
the Ministry of Higher Education of the People’s Republic of Bissau.
Mr. Qian has had a close relationship with the press. Early
in his career, he worked at Shanghai's
newspaper, Ta Kung Pao. While serving as director of the Information Department
of the Foreign Ministry from 1977 to 1982, he proposed establishing a spokesman
system and became the first spokesman of the Ministry. In 1977, he was
Director-General of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. He became Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1982 and Minister of
Foreign Affairs in 1988. He served as State Counselor and Minister of Foreign
Affairs from 1991 and was appointed Vice Premier of the State Council of the
PRC and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1993. From March 1998 to March 2003, he
was Vice Premier of the State Council.
He was an alternate member and then member of the 12th
Communist Party of China Central Committee, a Member of the 13th, 14th, and
15th Communist Party of China Central Committee, and a member of the Political
Bureau of the 14th and 15th Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Mr. Qian married Zhou Hanqiong in 1952. They have two
children. Their daughter obtained her Master's degree in environmental
protection after one-year of study in Britain. Their son graduated from
the People's University
of China as a Chinese
classical literature major and then gained a Master's degree.
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger was sworn in on September 22, 1973,
as the 56th Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977. He
also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from
January 20, 1969, until November 3, 1975. In July 1983 he was appointed by
President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America until it ceased operation in January
1985, and from 1984 to 1990, he served as a member of the President’s Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1986 to 1988 he was a member of the
Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council
and Defense Department. He is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board.
At present, Dr. Kissinger is Chairman of Kissinger
Associates, Inc., an international consulting firm. He is also a member of the
International Council of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; a Chairman of the
International Advisory Board of American International Group, Inc.; a Trustee
of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and an Honorary Governor
of the Foreign Policy Association. He is also a Trustee Emeritus of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art and Chancellor of The College of William & Mary.
Dr. Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Medal of Liberty (given one time
to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986.
Dr. Kissinger was born in Fuerth,
Germany, came to the United States in 1938 and was naturalized a United States
citizen in 1943. He served in the Army from 1943 to 1946. He graduated summa
cum laude from Harvard College in 1950 and received his M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees from Harvard
University in 1952 and
1954.
He was a member of the faculty of Harvard University
from 1954 to 1969. He was Director of the Harvard International Seminar from
1952 to 1969.
Dr. Kissinger is the author of 15 books, of which Nuclear
Weapons and Foreign Policy (1957), Problems of National Strategy (1965), White
House Years (1979), and Does America Need a Foreign Policy? (2001) are just a
few.
He has also published numerous articles on United States
foreign policy, international affairs, and diplomatic history. His column,
syndicated by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, appears in leading U.S. newspapers
and in over 40 foreign countries.
Dr. Kissinger is married to the former Nancy Maginnes and is
the father of two children by a previous marriage.
