By David K. Shipler
The
most stirring statement of any witness in the House impeachment hearings last
fall came from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council, who
opened his testimony with thanks and reassurance to his father, who had brought
his family to the United States for “refuge from authoritarian oppression” in
the Soviet Union.
“My
simple act of appearing here today,” Vindman declared, “would not be tolerated
in many places around the world. In Russia, my act of expressing concern
through the chain of command in an official and private channel would have
severe personal and professional repercussions, and offering public testimony
involving the president would surely cost me my life.
“I am
grateful for my father’s bold act of hope 40 years ago and for the privilege of
being an American citizen and public servant where I can live free of fear for
my and my family’s safety. Dad, [that] I’m sitting here today in the US Capitol
talking to our elected professionals is proof that you made the right decision
40 years ago to leave the Soviet Union and come here to the United States of
America in search of a better life for our family. Do not worry. I will be fine
for telling the truth.”
Did Colonel
Vindman misread his adopted country?
After honoring a subpoena and
testifying under oath on President Trump’s “inappropriate” phone call with
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Vindman got death threats so alarming
that the Army and local police had to provide security. The Army considered
moving his family to safety on a military base. And this week, after acquittal
in his impeachment trial, an unleashed Trump had Vindman escorted out of the
White House and then threatened him (by tweet) with unspecified military
punishment. This was part of a widening pattern of retaliation by the Trump
apparatus against impeachment witnesses and other independent thinkers in
government.
The United States is not the Soviet
Union, of course, and it’s a good bet that Vindman would never think it was. Furthermore,
invidious analogies between Trump and various forms of
authoritarianism—fascism, Nazism, third-world dictatorships—are so common that
they have lost their bite. So it’s important to recognize that while the
American constitutional system is under immense strain by Republicans impatient
with its messy checks on their power, the restraints have not yet broken.
Nevertheless, to one who lived in
Moscow from 1975 to 1979, there is a queasy taste of familiarity in the impulses
of Trump and his Republican followers. There is a certain kind of political
actor, whether Soviet or American, who cannot stand dissent and debate, who
derides facts and truth, who sees all behavior through a lens of personal or
ideological loyalty, and whose values extend no farther than immediate victory
and the expansion of authority. In this mindset, truth-tellers are “enemies of
the people,” to quote Stalin and Trump. Policy differences constitute warfare
in which argument and rebuttal are not enough: Opponents must be destroyed
through smears, propaganda, and retribution.
