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And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with your host David Axelrod.

Alexander Vinman is a great American story.

A Jewish emigrate from Eastern Europe, he devoted much of his life to the service of our country and sacrificed a promising military career to do what he felt his oath required.

In testifying against President Trump at his first impeachment trial, Vinman, then a director in the National Security Council at the White House, shown a spotlight on Trump's corrupt scheme in Ukraine.

But it also caused Vinman a promising career he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

He tells his story in an inspiring new memoir, Hear Right Matters, an American story.

I sat down with Colonel Vinman this week to talk about that journey.

Ironically, it was just before President Biden was to sit down with President Zelensky of Ukraine, a meeting that Vinman had hoped to arrange with President Trump two years ago that was at the core of the controversy on which he testified.

Here's our conversation.

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vinman, it's so good to see you.

We've seen you, all of us have seen you from afar in your dress uniform before you retired, testifying before Congress.

In the impeachment trial, we will have a lot of time to talk about that, but first welcome, and I want to talk about your extraordinary journey to that point and after.

Well, thank you for having me on, David. It's an honor. I've watched you from afar for decades and appreciate your work and glad to be on this program with you.

Thank you. As we were discussing before we started rolling, we have something in common in that both our families were Jewish, emigres from the same part of the world, generations apart.

But talk to me a little bit about your story that you wrote so beautifully about in your book, Hear Right Matters, which you recently published.

But you were born in Kiev. But talk to me about your family history there and what led your family to come here.

Sure. So it is amazing how many people I've run across with either recent or deep roots in that part of the world.

I think one thing that we all kind of shared in common was a recognition that the same opportunities that we are able to enjoy here were not available there in different ways.

I think it seems that with the earlier generations, it was more direct physical threats and harm, programs and so forth.

And then with more recent generations, it was the lack of access to prosperity, lack of equality.

In my case, that was a driving force for my father to make sure that we had, we could enjoy at least the same kinds of benefits that he was able to through focus and willpower achieve.

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