PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — He is a Jewish military officer, from a disputed foreign territory, wrongly accused, publicly disgraced, banished across an open body of water, and abandoned to an isolated location.
No, not Alfred Dreyfus, the French officer who was falsely convicted of colluding with Germany and then whose badges, stripes, cuffs and sleeves of his jacket were torn off on Jan. 5, 1895, at the Military School in Paris, and sent across the Atlantic Ocean to a prison on Devil’s Island in French Guiana for five years.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was removed from the National Security Council by President Trump on Friday after he testified before the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives of the chief executive’s attempted collusion with the president of Ukraine. Vindman’s testimony contributed to Trump’s impeachment in the House followed by his acquittal in the Senate.
A security officer escorted Vindman, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, from the White House and sent across the Potomac River into exile at the Pentagon. Okay, the Potomac is not so wide as the Atlantic and the Pentagon is not exactly Devil’s Island.
Trump piled on by stating Saturday: “He was very insubordinate, reported contents of my ‘perfect’ calls incorrectly, and was given a horrendous report by his supervisor.”
The president even punished Vindman’s twin brother, Lt. Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who parted from his job as the White House attorney. David Pressman, Alexander Vindman’s lawyer, said the president had “made a series of obviously false statements concerning Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.”
While the Dreyfus affair was far more detrimental, it should be noted that Vindman was not even afforded anything akin to a trial, and none of Dreyfus’s relatives shared his prison sentence on Devil’s Island.
The comparison of Vindman to Dreyfus is eerie. The first thought that sprang to mind was a split-screen shot of Vindman being escorted from the White House and a military adjutant stripping Dreyfus of his badges and stripes in full public view. The spectacle of Dreyfus’s humiliation was re-enacted in the 1959 film I Accuse! with Jose Ferrer playing Dreyfus.
Dreyfus was originally from the Alsace-Lorraine region, a slab of real estate that was for decades a bitter point of conflict between France and Germany. Ukraine, as most people are aware, has been attacked by Russia in recent years, was part of the former Soviet Union and was seized by Germany during World War II.
The Vindman and Dreyfus affairs differ markedly. I cannot for an instant raise anti-Semitism as an issue in Vindman’s case, as it was for Dreyfus. But it is no less about power. One wonders if Trump would have stood Vindman in front of a firing squad if he thought he could get away with it.
“This is Roman coliseum stuff,” noted journalist Howard Fineman on a political talk program.
It is yet another brazen abuse of power – one that could be grist for another article of impeachment, added one other commentator. He is intimidating witnesses. That it happened after the fact makes no difference. Trump’s move threatens anyone else who might testify before Congress.
The president’s vengeous rampage extended to Gordon Sondland, also Jewish, who was removed as ambassador to the European Union the same day. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported the prospect of numerous other firings and the withdrawal of nominations before the Senate.
Commenting on Sondland and the Vindmans in Tuesday’s Washington Post, Trump critic George T. Conway III wrote, “There should be no doubt that punishing witnesses for complying with subpoenas and giving truthful testimony about presidential misconduct should make for a high crime or misdemeanor as well” – a reference to the constitutional standard for impeachment.
Congress should once again consider impeachment because Trump’s treatment of Vindman – a Purple Heart recipient – could amount to an impeachable offense.
Despite his having “went through hell, unfairly,” Trump’s reprisals make little sense. He is announcing to his enemies, and the rest of the world, that they have gotten to him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership has antagonized him so much that he is retaliating against anyone who had anything to do with his impeachment. That is genuine satisfaction for Trump’s enemies. Their goal appeared to be the pursuit of justice, but they been extracting revenge.
It is confounding because I am not certain how this even harms these people. It sounds like the people he is striking at will not suffer. They will have livelihoods. Sondland can return to Portland, Oregon, and go back to managing his hotel. The Vindmans still have their ranks.
Alexander Vindman can regard his experience as a badge of honor. In fact, maybe Trump turned Vindman into a martyr. Like Dreyfus.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.