Rebuilding the American Dream, Speech at Cooper Union

The full transcript of my speech on the American Dream

Tonight, I had the honor of speaking at Cooper Union with my friend Jeff Atwood. I reflected on the American Dream, the challenges facing our democracy, and the necessity of moral courage in the fight for our country’s future. Below is the full transcript of my speech. Thank you for being part of this important conversation.

---

Thank you all for being here today.

My name is Alex Vindman, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (Retired). It is an honor to stand before you, alongside my friend Jeff Atwood, at Cooper Union—a place deeply woven into the fabric of American history. Here, Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech that helped define his presidency and set the course for our nation at a time of immense strife.

Today, we gather at another pivotal moment, where American democracy, our values, and global leadership are once again being tested.

Jeff and I come from different backgrounds, yet we are both proud Americans, connected by the American Dream—we lived it, we know it, and we understand its immense value.

The American Dream—Why It Matters

I want to use this opportunity to talk about the American Dream. Because protecting it has been a driving force in my professional career. Expanding access to it is a central mission in my life.

My successes were made possible by the sacrifices and efforts of those who came before me—who protected and expanded access to that dream.

My family’s story is a quintessentially American story—so much so that it became the subtitle of my first book. Let me share some of that story, because it explains—better than anything else—what the American Dream means to me.

My Family’s Journey

In 1979, my family came to the United States as refugees fleeing despotism. We fled the Soviet Union, one of those nightmarish 20th-century communist regimes.

We left behind a regime that crushed dissent and institutionalized antisemitism. A regime where the state controlled nearly every aspect of life. Where expressing the wrong opinion could cost you your job, your freedom—or even your life.

My father at 47 years old, my grandmother at 69, my older brother at 11, my twin and I at just four years old. We arrived with nothing, but America offered freedoms—speech, religion, protest. And a chance at opportunity and prosperity.

For my father, the decision to leave his home was not easy. My mother had recently passed away from cancer. He saw a news report about the Shah of Iran receiving cancer treatment here—the same cancer that took my mother’s life. That, coupled with the promise of opportunity for his children, solidified his resolve to leave behind a life of repression and seek a brighter future in America.

My father knew that in America, his children would not be seen as second-class citizens. Here, our potential would be determined by our effort—not by a state that categorized people based on their ethnicity and beliefs, inheritance, or any other category meant to exclude.

The journey of refugees is one of both hardship and hope. We arrived with little more than a few suitcases, the clothes on our backs, and a determination to build a better future.

That opportunity is enshrined on Lady Liberty’s pedestal: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me!”

My father believed in that promise. While in the Soviet Union, quotas limited opportunities for us, in America our only limits were our imagination. And like many immigrants, we were not only fleeing oppression but also racing toward opportunity.

James Truslow Adams described the American Dream as “A land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement… regardless of the circumstances of birth.”

Growth of the American Dream

We must acknowledge that this dream did not emerge fully formed with the birth of our nation. In reality, opportunity has been tied to the expansion of rights and social safety nets.

The American Dream will only survive if it is truly accessible. Future generations and people passed over in previous generations, both due to economic hardship and systemic barriers, need to believe the Dream is within reach.

Throughout our history, Americans fighting to secure civil rights and economic opportunities for all have played a crucial role in expanding access to opportunity and prosperity. These courageous Americans reinforced the idea that the Dream is not just for the privileged few but for all who contribute to this great nation.

I grew up just a few miles from here in Brooklyn. Not all of my childhood was easy, but we didn’t want for much because my dad had the safety net of a union job, and we had a good home life. Somewhere along the way, the opportunities afforded by this country allowed me to grow complacent. I squandered opportunities at times.

I was kicked out of my first University because my professors disagreed with me that class attendance was optional. However, after working for half a year in this city, I returned to school to complete my education because I had refocused on serving in the military. I then proceeded to get two Masters degrees and a PhD, so perhaps I overcompensated slightly.

Likewise, the American story is one of missed opportunities and second chances. Our nation has often delayed doing the right thing, only to later recognize its mistakes and correct course. From the failures to address systemic discrimination to the inconsistencies in our foreign policy, America has at times struggled to live up to its ideals.

At home, racial injustice, economic disparity, and disenfranchisement have persisted for too long. Abroad, we have sometimes failed to uphold the very principles we champion.

Yet, history has also shown that the American people have the power to change course, to push forward, and to ensure that our nation lives up to its founding principles. Growth and self-correction are part of the American identity, both individually and collectively.

I started to discover that more and more during my 22 years of military service. I served as a troop leader and as an attaché at the US Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv, and as a strategist I authored the National Military Strategy for Russia. My experiences led me all the way to the White House’s National Security Council.

Over time, countless opportunities have blessed me with perspective and helped me understand who we are. While imperfect, we are nonetheless a unique country where the arc of history bends toward justice.

Necessity for Moral Courage

Through public service, my understanding of America and our foundational values developed, and I fully embraced the Army’s institutional values and used them as a litmus test for my actions. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage were my measures of performance.

Along the way, those values prepared me to exercise moral courage as a reflex. That meant speaking up when I saw something wrong and resolving to never walk by a mistake. And my military leaders encouraged me to do so.

I have noticed that war movies are all about physical courage. Society prizes that form of courage and rewards it with medals. But my experiences have taught me that physical courage, under adrenaline and necessitating instinctual action, is rarely as important as moral courage, which requires forethought and appreciation of the risks and dangers.

And moral courage is what has transformed the world. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln, in this very hall, displayed immense moral courage at enormous personal cost. Each one of those leaders knew the personal risks and dangers they would endure for their struggles, but they still decided to stand up for justice and those who could not.

Moral courage is not just the ability to stand firm in the face of opposition; it is the willingness to take risks, to challenge complacency, and to act when others hesitate. Training moral courage must become a fundamental component of preparing competent leadership and be cultivated in our society. Because it is not enough to recognize injustice; we must be ready to confront it.

Through this lens, I viewed the act of reporting presidential corruption as my clear duty. It may have been a small act of courage, but ultimately, the decision felt easy to me. After being forced out of the military, I decided to write my first book to explain the values that drove my decision to hold the most powerful man in the world accountable. It was titled Here, Right Matters: An American Story.

In the book, I explained that I was channeling the courage of my father coming to the U.S., my many years of service in the military, and my experiences in combat and hardship assignments around the world. I was able to stand up for what I knew was right because I had the perspective that America is different.

Before I testified in Congress, my dad was deeply worried about the repercussions I would face. His concern stemmed from his experience living under communism for most of his life. I tried to reassure him that my testimony about Presidential corruption was proof that he made the right decision to come here. He had seen what happens to truth-tellers under authoritarianism. He feared for me. But I told him— “Here, right matters.”

The Struggles We Face Today

This concept of moral courage is now more relevant than ever. Powerful elites are stripping away safety nets, individual rights, and the institutions that expanded opportunity and prosperity to countless millions.

At home and abroad, the defining challenge of the 21st Century will be between the future and the past. Does humanity progress or are we dragged backward? We are living the age-old struggle between despotism and democracy, between individual liberties and the tyranny of an elite minority. We risk a return to the rules of the jungle, where the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must.

We live in a time where America is being tested. Where apathy and complacency threaten to erode the very values that allowed my family—and so many others—to thrive. Yet history has proven one thing: when people fight back, the powerful prove brittle. Despots and dictators are often more fragile than they appear. Together, we have a choice.

This is truly an inflection point for our great nation. America, democracy isn’t something we inherit—it’s something we build, every day. Thinking back on all of the sacrifices that have allowed us to get to this point, I say to you all: We must not be the generation that lets American democracy slip away!

Defending the American Dream

The antidote to this trend is us. It requires each of our participation in the civic sphere to protect the American dream. Unfortunately, too many Americans no longer see democracy’s relevance. 100 million voters stayed home in the last election. Why? Because they feel that democracy does not impact their daily lives. That opportunity is out of reach.

Worse yet, this apathy and lack of engagement has been used to advance a thoroughly anti-democratic vision for the United States held by a small circle of elites. We are seeing out-of-touch billionaires with no stake in democracy happily enriching themselves at the expense of working people. It continues to shock me, because many of these ultra-wealthy need to look back no more than a generation or two to see how their prosperity is tied to the opportunities America offered them and their forbearers.

To me, it is abundantly clear that the opportunity that was offered to immigrants and native-born Americans alike is up to us to protect. We live in a world in which the despotism that we thought was vanquished is resurgent because of our complacency and apathy.

The comforts of living the American dream have made some of us lose sight of how unique and valuable life in the United States is. Meanwhile, too many others have been denied the fruits of our nation and are left feeling dejected, thinking that the success and happiness that all Americans strive for lie outside of their reach.

I still believe in the American Dream, and part of that means believing that the challenges we face today are the natural result of the enormous strides we’ve made over the last 60 years in expanding the American Dream for so many.

Yet, it is the things our society failed to truly grapple with in the past that have come back to haunt us. As opportunities expand and society changes, the old “isms” of the 20th century are gasping and grasping to take us back to a time when opportunity was limited to too few. Consequently, more will have less.

The future will not leave room for fence-sitters. Life as we know it in the United States will grow harder for the average American. We will all be forced to shake off complacency and awaken our collective people-power.

Medium-Term Outcomes

In its own way, this crisis may indirectly provide more access to the American dream. This hardship could help us regain our sense of community and allow for leaders to emerge who will channel the energy of people-power to bring about change. History teaches us that overreach often breeds correction.

If we are all engaged and demonstrate our moral courage, we will soon have a unique opportunity to rebuild our institutions with renewed purpose—to ensure that democracy is more inclusive, that policy expands opportunity, and that those in power remain accountable. We must not simply rebuild what has existed up until now, but advance our society for the sake of our children.

When democracy delivers its blows to despotism, we need not return to a broken system the despots find easy to destroy. In my recent book, I argued for a new form of American leadership that understands the centrality of values to interests.

A vision and concept of democracy that better serves our security needs and enables us to recapture moral leadership in the world. A values approach based on expanded opportunity will better serve the citizenry and help end the scourge of apathy and complacency.

Envisioning a Better Tomorrow

As we look toward the future, I would like to invoke President Lincoln’s speech at this hallowed institution in 1860. He stood here and warned us: Progress isn’t automatic. It’s a choice we make, a fight we take on.

Finding a way to ensure access to opportunity for all Americans is decidedly difficult, but it is necessary if the United States and its democratic system of governance are to fully recover and fulfill the promise of a more perfect union. We cannot allow fellow Americans to be cast aside by a regressive moment in our society, nor should we pass the generational struggles against poverty and inequality to burden our children.

Our inability to reckon with the impacts of deindustrialization and discrimination placed us in a difficult position. The impact of artificial intelligence will have an even more acute impact on our economy and society. It will be more disruptive and will happen in just years, not decades.

We must do the difficult things that are needed to give all Americans access to opportunity and heal the causes of our current division to address the crises on the horizon. We should avoid thinking of this as a cost and something to be weighed against, but rather, an investment in the future of this country.

It’s not enough to push back against the efforts to cut safety nets; we must build something greater, something that brings prosperity to more Americans. To echo the words of our former president, we will soon have the opportunity to “build back better” and deliver a greater vision for America.

Call to Action

As we look toward the future, we must also recognize the immense responsibility that comes with this moment in history.

When I left the military, I knew my mission was not over. I wrote about this responsibility in a Washington Post op-ed on my very first day as a civilian—the idea that my service to our country would not end when the uniform came off. I pledged to continue to advance U.S. national security and to advocate for values-based leadership and public service.

That is why I have dedicated my efforts to VoteVets—an organization committed to giving veterans a voice in politics and policy. We help elect veteran leaders who have lived the values of service and sacrifice. Those army values I referenced are not only applicable to military service, they extend into civic engagement, public leadership, and to ensuring that America upholds the very ideals we have defended abroad.

At VoteVets, our work goes beyond elections. We also amplify the voices of trusted veteran messengers, breaking through partisan noise with messages that resonate—messages rooted in experience, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to this nation. VoteVets fights to make sure leaders who understand service—who have lived it—are at the table.

Now, what are you doing? Well, you’re showing up and getting engaged. Keep showing up and don’t lose heart. I urge that you do not grow disenchanted, even when things look bleak. Your vote in elections is critical; it is the means to hold your leaders accountable. The upcoming special elections and midterms are the best way to force those in power to listen to you.

Our battle for America, for democracy, is ongoing and it requires participation at every level. Authoritarians seek to divide and exhaust. We win by forming coalitions and showing up for each other. Remember what connects us—we are all American, and if we put aside petty grievances to form a movement of movements, nothing will stand in our way.

Just as Lincoln warned us—“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.” The same holds true today. If there is anything to be learned from recent history, it is that democracy does not sustain itself.

So, be courageous. Organize and hold leaders accountable. Push for policies that reflect America’s ideals. Democracy, America, demands action. We fight for it—or we lose it.

Let’s fight!