Who Owns the Doctrine?
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby accuses Will of attempting to craft foreign policy unilaterally, comparing the doctrine to "Mother Theresa with first-strike capabilities."
Will exits but returns to argue Bartlet would endorse radical ideas if Toby wrote them, leading to a tense exchange about loyalty and consequence.
Toby dismisses Elsie after the confrontation, reasserting control over his office.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not present but referenced as part of the advisory set whose buy-in would be required for doctrine change.
Josh is referenced alongside Leo as a senior counselor; his inclusion underscores the team-based nature of presidential advice and the procedural objection Toby raises to Will's unilateral drafting.
- • To influence the President's policy through counsel (implied).
- • To manage political fallout from any doctrinal shift (implied).
- • Doctrine should be the product of senior staff consensus.
- • Policy change has political and bureaucratic consequences that require coordination.
Referenced as the steady conveyor of facts; emotionally neutral in this scene but instrumental in framing urgency.
C.J. is mentioned indirectly — her press briefing earlier set the Khundu body count at 15,000 — and her reporting provides the factual hook that Will uses to press moral urgency.
- • To communicate the human toll of Khundu to the public via the press briefing.
- • To ensure accurate casualty figures inform internal policy debates.
- • Transparency in reporting matters for both public awareness and policy urgency.
- • Numbers and briefings can drive political and moral pressure.
Professional and unobtrusive; her contribution is functional rather than emotional.
Stacy is referenced as the courier who dropped off the draft pages that Will reads; her action catalyzes the scene though she is not onstage during the argument.
- • To deliver requested material promptly to speechwriters.
- • To ensure relevant documents reach the appropriate staff for urgent drafting.
- • Accurate, timely information is necessary for effective speechwriting.
- • Administrative work can shape high-level debates by choice of what gets circulated.
Defensive and disdainful on the surface; anxious about institutional risk and guarding rhetorical authority.
Toby intercepts Will's reading with skepticism, identifies the language as old Bartlet text struck for reason, critiques the notion of two speechwriters inventing doctrine, mocks idealism with the 'Mother Theresa with first-strike capabilities' line and dismisses Elsie at the end to reclaim his office.
- • To prevent ad hoc rhetoric from being elevated into official doctrine without interagency coordination.
- • To maintain control over the President's voice and keep speechcraft within established processes.
- • Foreign policy must be crafted with interagency input, not invented by two speechwriters.
- • Grand moral rhetoric divorced from operational planning is dangerous and hypocritical.
Not present but represented as a moral authority whose past words carry political weight and consequences.
President Bartlet is quoted indirectly as the source of the struck language; his historical wording is the disputed material that both anchors and complicates the proposed doctrine.
- • To have a presidential voice that can articulate national values (implied).
- • To reconcile moral rhetoric with practical constraints (implied historical judgment).
- • The President has expressed universalist values that staff now debate implementing.
- • Past rhetorical choices may be struck from record for practical or political reasons.
Absent but implicated as a moderating institutional force whose interests are being appealed to.
Leo is invoked by Will as one of the President's senior counselors; his name functions as shorthand for the internal advisory network that would vet doctrine, raising the stakes of unilateral speech decisions.
- • To be involved in high-level decisions about doctrine (implied).
- • To balance idealism with political and institutional realities (implied).
- • Senior counselors should shape doctrine collectively.
- • Institutional checks are necessary for responsible policy.
Amused and mildly conspiratorial; she provides levity while privately sympathetic to Will's urgency.
Elsie sits in the room, interjects with a sardonic historical quip about U.S. behavior ('Somebody called our father'), watches the sparring, stays behind after Will leaves and accepts Toby's curt dismissal with mild amusement.
- • To support Will informally and observe the framing of the President's voice.
- • To defuse tension with humor and remain an available ally to staffers.
- • History shows the U.S. will act when it chooses; invoking past behavior undercuts naive idealism.
- • Personal relationships (First Lady's favor) permit her to be present in policy spaces in a light, meddling way.
Not applicable — used as rhetorical contrast to highlight perceived danger when moralism is paired with militarism.
Mother Teresa is invoked metaphorically by Toby as the foil for the proposed doctrine; she is not present but her moral authority is weaponized rhetorically to expose a perceived contradiction.
- • To serve as a moral benchmark against which Toby measures the draft (rhetorical function).
- • To make the audience see the absurdity of combining pure altruism with first-strike power.
- • Pure humanitarianism is not a policy toolkit when mixed with offensive force (as implied by Toby's simile).
- • Invoking revered figures clarifies the moral stakes of rhetoric.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Pages from Bartlet's 16-year-old Red Mass speech are the historical source embedded in the disputed draft; Toby recognizes the phrasing as previously stricken, using that provenance to discredit resurrecting it now.
Stacy's disputed foreign policy speech draft provides the pages Will reads aloud; it functions as both catalyst and evidence, containing struck Presidential language and prompting the authorship and process dispute between Will and Toby.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Republic of Equatorial Khundu is the humanitarian crisis that Will invokes to convert abstract rhetoric into urgent moral action; Khundu's casualty figures frame the debate and supply the emotional imperative behind the draft language.
El Salvador is invoked by Toby as historical precedent for the struck language; it functions as a concrete example of when high-minded rhetoric was judged politically or operationally unwise and subsequently removed from the record.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The National Security Council is cited as part of the institutional web that should oversee any doctrinal invention; Toby names the NSC to stress that national security policy is collective, not the product of speechwriters alone.
The Pentagon is referenced as the military authority that would be affected by any doctrine prescribing force; Toby's argument points to the Pentagon as a necessary stakeholder whose operational concerns make unilateral rhetorical claims risky.
The State Department is invoked as the traditional steward of diplomatic policy and careful speech language; Toby lists it among the institutions that should vet any doctrinal shift, positioning the Department as a necessary check on ad hoc rhetoric.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
"Bartlet's dissatisfaction with State Department's conservative language parallels Will's proposal of a bold new doctrine based on American values."
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
"Will's reading of the old Bartlet speech directly influences Bartlet's reflection on the moral dilemma of valuing Khundunese lives."
Key Dialogue
"WILL: "We are for freedom of speech everywhere. Freedom to worship everywhere. Freedom to learn for every child.""
"TOBY: "This language proposes a new doctrine for the use of force. That we use force whenever we see an injustice we want to correct. Like Mother Theresa with first-strike capabilities.""
"WILL: "C.J. this morning put the body count at 15,000.""