Town Crier Articles

Leslie Lautenslager, an expert in international protocol, served as General Colin Powell’s executive assistant for twenty-five years and in that role experienced history in the making. In an enthusiastic presentation at the June 18th New Town talk, she helped bring this important figure to life describing, as she called it “the human side of General Powell.”  She shared behind-the-scenes and behind-the-headlines stories from the 25 years she spent working closely with Colin Powell.

 

General Powell was an important presence in the White House through multiple administrations. After serving as Ronald Reagan’s National Security advisor, he became the first African American and youngest Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff in George HW Bush administration, in which he played critical role in planning Operation Desert Storm against Iraq. During President George W. Bush’s presidency, he served as Secretary of State, the first African American to hold this important office.  In the wake of the 9/11 attack, Powell was tasked with building international coalitions and for creating support for America’s intervention in Iraq. 

 

Leslie began working with Powell in 1996 and ultimately was in charge of protocol, organizing his schedule and logistics, essentially his executive assistant or aide-de-camp. She described Powell’s leadership approach.  He expected his subordinates to honestly express their opinions about his decisions. He, in turn, trained Leslie and other staff members with formal “love notes,” which analyzed their performance and laid out his expectations. 

 

While he was trained in the military, in many ways Powell was the ultimate politician.  He was an impressive speaker, who could “command the room with his presence.”  We learned that Powell prepared meticulously for his speeches and diplomatic events. None of Powell’s thousands of speeches were written out, and he had such a command of his subjects that he rarely referred to written notes.  

 

At social and diplomatic functions, he knew how to work the room, moving through a crowd, interacting with as many people as possible and building rapport with each person. Leslie’s job in these instances was, if necessary, to run interference, and he and Lautenslager had secret ways of communicating during events.  In her talk, she also recounted how at times she saved Powell from embarrassing situations, such as the time when he opened the door to his hotel room and found a naked man asleep on the bed.   

 

Lautenslager also shared anecdotes about Powell that revealed his human side. She noted that while the world saw Powell as a distinguished diplomat, statesman and tough military leader, he was also funny, gracious and kind. Among friends and family, he was known for enjoying his comfort food, as a “car guy, and as a “terrible backseat driver.”  He also loved Broadway and the pop group ABBA and at one performance of the pop group was seated with Donny Osmond on one side of the aisle and Israel’s  Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly across the aisle.

  

At times Powell was a comedian and practical jokester.  Leslie shared the story of how as Secretary of State he invited the Secretary of Defense, the head of the National Security Council and several other high government officials to an elaborate formal lunch.  But when the food was served, on the plates were brown paper bags with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, a cookie and yahoo chocolate milk.   

 

While most of Leslie’s remanences were light-hearted stories, she did note that although Colin Powell grew up in an integrated and cohesive South Bronx community, he was not insulated from racism. He graduated from City College of New York and earned his commission in the army through ROTC. His first assignment was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and he was told not to stop on his drive to the base because there were only two hotels that accepted “colored people.” Once there, he was also told never to leave the base because the army could not guarantee his safety in Fayetteville. While Powell overcame most racial barriers, Lautenslager also recalled that in 2008, while Powell was in Hong Kong, he learned that Barack Obama had won the presidency in a landslide. At that moment he cried and said “Look how far we have come.”