Why Must Read Here, Right Matters: An American Story?

This is a brisk, interesting memoir. Most readers will remember Lt. Colonel Vindmen--44 years old and in full dress uniform--testifying at the House impeachment hearing. His opening statement made quite an impact because it wasn't only about the events in the White House that the president was being impeached for, but also about his own first-generation immigrant experience and what protecting and valuing American democracy meant to him. The book is like that, too, but of course, in greater depth. I enjoyed the descriptions of his childhood in Brighton Beach in the 1980s. Shaped by his family and also his military training, he writes about the importance of listening to your moral compass, even when you have to pay a price. In Lt. Colonel Vindman's case, the price was a lost career, lost promotion, and suffering vicious public attacks from rightwing officials and media. It's good to read that, after all he's been through, he would absolutely do the same thing again. Vindman describes himself s a "late bloomer", but in his 20s began to discover his talents, including ability as a leader in the Army. He goes from a platoon leader on a training mission in South Korea to combat in Iraq where he's wounded by shrapnel. He trains to become a top expert on Russia and Ukraine (where he was born when it was the USSR). That sends him to the Pentagon and then onto the NSC. In 2019, he was in the Situation Room translating and taking notes of President Trump's now-infamous call to Ukrainian president Zelensky. He knew immediately that what the president had said in the call was "corrupt" and needed to be reported. He did it—with trepidation, but also with determination to do the right thing. He never expected that report or his call notes to become public. (The NSC lawyer improperly hid his notes in the codeword protected, highly classified, server.) Vindman thinks a lot along the way about what makes good leadership, and he shares those ideas. It's good to be reminded about what public service should look like--and how important it is to not just be pursuing one's own self-interest, but to be willing to put the country and the Constitution first, even when it isn't easy. Although he doesn't specifically say it, there is an obvious contrast here between those who bravely and honestly testified to Congress and President Trump, who made many smears of these public servants but refused to ever be under oath--not to the special counsel, not in this impeachment or the second one. ((of course, this list of people to thank for courage in impeachment #1 inc. the whistleblower and IG Atkinson who showed their own integrity before the hearings.) Sadly, we see the president use the power of his office to corruptly pursue his own self interest even when it hurts U.S. national security. Interestingly, many of the features of Impeachment #1 described here were also present in Impeachment #2, including the disruptive machinations of Rudy Giuliani. We don’t give out medals for speaking up against corruption—in fact, Vindman lost his career and his promotion to colonel for doing it--and finally resigned from the Army. (Also making his choice to expose the president's corruption difficult was the conflict with his beloved father who begins here as a firm Trump supporter). But Vindman ends with an honorable spot in the history books, new career beginnings in his life, and still a belief that "Here, right matters" --although you have to fight harder for it than we expect.