Traces the life and career of the Army general who was appointed National Security Advisor by Ronald Reagan and became the country's first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1989.

When the first colonists arrived in what would become the United States, they confronted the reality that in order to survive, they would have to tame the land and make it work for them. In addition to these early settlers were those brought to North America against their will--enslaved Africans who were forced to toil in intolerable conditions. From these beginnings developed the fabled Puritan work ethic that has become the standard for Americans...