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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Here, Right Matters summary
Alexander Vindman
An American Story
20 mins
Brief summary
Here, Right Matters chronicles Alexander Vindman's journey from a Soviet immigrant to a key witness in President Trump's impeachment trial. It highlights his belief in duty, integrity, and speaking truth to power, emphasizing personal accountability.
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Here, Right Matters
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The phone call
It was a Thursday morning in late July 2019, and Alexander Vindman found himself in the familiar but always intense setting of the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing. The situation was this: he and a few other White House officials were about to listen in on a call between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s newly elected leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vindman had been working for over a year at the National Security Council, directing policy for Eastern Europe and Russia. As a lieutenant colonel in the US Army, he was no stranger to high-stakes diplomacy, but a lot was on the line today.
Ukraine was making real progress towards becoming a more democratic nation, but since Russia’s 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea, it was still in an extremely vulnerable position. Ukraine was the frontline defense against further Russian encroachment, which made it central to US national security policy. Yet, despite this, just weeks before the call, the White House had mysteriously frozen nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine – funds essential for its survival.
There were other disturbing signs. Rudy Giuliani, the US president’s personal lawyer, was running his own foreign policy show, far outside any official channels. He was working with US officials like Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and their whole mission seemed to revolve around shady deals designed to hurt Trump’s political rivals and help his reelection campaign. In a recent meeting, Sondland had hinted that if Zelensky wanted to be invited to the White House, Ukraine would have to launch investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
It was disturbing to Vindman that his work was being undermined for such petty reasons. But it was about to get worse. As the call began, Vindman took notes as Trump immediately began to go off-script and veer into dangerous territory. In real time, his worst fears were confirmed: the leader of the free world appeared to be leveraging military aid in exchange for an investigation into the Bidens.
When the call ended, Vindman looked around the room. Everyone had heard what he’d heard. But no one was going to act. That’s when he knew: it had to be him. In his mind, there was no other choice, he had to report the incident. Not because he wanted to make headlines, and certainly not because he was looking to tank his career, but because it was his duty – as an officer and as an American who still believed that this was not how the nation’s government was supposed to function.
This decision had everything to do with how Vindman was raised, what his family had been through, and his own experiences in the military. In the next sections, we’ll go on a journey that shows how the values of the American Dream still live on in Vindman’s heart.
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What is Here, Right Matters about?
Here, Right Matters (2021) is an inspirational memoir from the man who served as the key witness in Donald Trump’s first impeachment hearings. It tells the story of an immigrant family who believed deeply in America’s democratic values and the price the author had to pay in staying true to those ideals.
Who should read Here, Right Matters?
- Fans of memoirs and personal stories of resilience
- Civically engaged people
- Students and scholars of political science or public policy
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