this was years before he essentially said the most important person of influence at the time was not Reagan, but Gorbachev....
lets all face it....the military as in regular life is not fair....some people get promoted for no other reason than they "fit" in with their bosses or look pretty or play golf well or are drinking buddies with the boss....I suspect Powell is one of those that fit a certain agenda for the bosses...
--it's called "affirmative action"--