Five years ago, you could have queried a thousand pedestrians along the 16th Street Mall in Denver and not one could have identified Fiona Hill. She was elevated in 2017 as deputy assistant to the incoming President and senior director in the White House for European and Russian Affairs on the National Security Council. Hers was not a political appointment but recognition of a civil servant who had completed a remarkable journey from the coal fields of central England to the highest reaches of America’s foreign policy establishment – another personal history possible only in the United States. Then, in 2019, Hill became one of the female faces blowing the whistle on Donald Trump’s “perfect phone call” to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, together with career American Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.

When Fiona Hill visited Colorado last week, her four appearances were sold out, capped by a forum before the World Denver organization affiliated with the foreign affairs school at the University of Denver. Two recent Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Condoleeza Rice, enjoy links to this program. If there was an “old school” network of Denver’s movers and shakers, it would extensively overlap with the graying Boomers packing seats in the auditorium at CoLab’s downtown press building. It was apparent these are men and women who see each other regularly at Denver Country Club luncheons and charity events. If they attended Fiona Hill’s presentation seeking reassurance that Vladimir Putin has no intention of burning down the post-World War II order, they were sorely disappointed.

Hill’s best-selling memoir, “There is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” was selling briskly in the lobby. I was intrigued by a recent interview with Hill in which she observed that, despite President Trump’s repeated promise to place “America First” in foreign diplomacy, she never observed him actually put American interests first. Not even once, she emphasized. After encountering trouble with clip-on lavalier microphones, which were replaced with old fashioned hand mikes, Hill plunged into a description of the Russian government as a constitutional monarchy with no checks or balances on its Czar – Vladimir the Great. She soon responded that the Russian President is likely willing to use the tactical nuclear weapons he’s been threatening to unleash in Ukraine.

Whether it’s her British education or many years toiling in academia and think tanks, where she now works for the Brookings Institution, Hill has a laconic style with little observable emotional affect. You come away with the sense she could announce either The Second Coming or an imminent Armageddon with the workmanlike precision of a sportscaster reciting soccer scores. Consequently, it’s easy to overlook the import of the conclusions she drops into her dialogue. Echoing similar comments from other pundits, she reinforced the notion we are not at risk of World War III so much as we are already engaged in a 21st century World War – and have been for the better part of a decade. That “Putin wants conflict between Russia and NATO”, is not comforting. On the bright side she sees a genuine risk of economic collapse if Putin’s Ukraine adventure runs longer than Russia can afford.

As close as Hill comes to humor was her response to a question about the power Russian oligarchs might exercise to steer Putin away from further slaughter. After pointing out that no one becomes an oligarch without Putin’s permission (in most cases they were personally selected for their riches only so long as they are willing to share with the boss). “It’s more fun to be an oligarch than a dictator. Once wives and daughters and mistresses are cut off from their money and European mansions – that could change,” she quipped with a smile.

Seth Abramson, author of “Proof of Collusion” raises a similar dilemma regarding Americans in his current Substack essay, “The Ten Hardest Truths about the War in Europe.” Abramson writes: “In coming months, Americans will be repeatedly confronted with the question of how much we are willing to sacrifice to preserve our nation and preserve the very notion of democracy. Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 epidemic we learned that at least half of America is unwilling to have its daily routine disturbed. There’s no reason to expect we’ll answer the call of history any more honorably now that it’s a political principle … at stake.”

Hill also grumbled about Trumpist zealots, pointing out Mike Pompeo and Tucker Carlson, who are cheerleading for Putin’s war. Hill explains, “Ukraine has become the front line in a struggle, not just for what countries can or cannot be in NATO … but in a struggle for maintaining a rules-based system in which things countries want are not taken by force.”

We would be well advised to listen carefully whenever she speaks.

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.