Alex Vindman

Thanks.

Good to be here with you, Katie.

I thought you were going to say that I was best known for my appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

A lot of folks seem to recognize me from there.

Certainly, you know, the public knows me from that context.

I didn't necessarily recognize the impact.

I was sitting, testifying in front of Congress.

You know, I was the focus of the story, but I wasn't really—

You know, a part of that story, at least not in my sense.

I was just doing my job.

But behind the scenes, a lot of folks knew me for having a pretty exceptional military career.

I finally came to the U.S.

in 1979.

I was four years old.

We were Jewish refugees that fled from the Soviet Union.

Dad landed in the U.S.

at the age of 47, hauled furniture to be able to provide for us boys.

It was my older brother, my twin brother.

a grandmother he didn't get along with.

He was a primary caregiver because my mother passed away and worked my way up through there, combat tours in Iraq, representing this nation in embassies in Kyiv, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Pentagon service, where I wrote the book on Russia, and then White House on the National Security Council.