Shortly after arriving at Fort McPherson, Georgia, in 1989, to head the U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), General Colin L. Powell put up a framed poster of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a present from Dr. King’s widow, in the main conference room. On it were inscribed Dr. King’s words: "Freedom has always been an expensive thing.” Dr. King had in mind the sacrifices of the civil rights movement, of which he had been a major catalyst, in the 1950s and 1960s. But to Powell, a career Army officer who would soon leave FORSCOM to become the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dr. King’s words had a broader, deeper meaning. Not only did he find them applicable to the civil rights struggle, but also he felt they spoke directly to the entire American experience and the central role played by the Armed Forces in preserving American values—freedom first among them.