Recovered Doctrine — Values, Force, and Khundu
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Will reads from a speech proposing a new foreign policy doctrine based on American values, not just interests, while Toby listens skeptically.
Will reveals the speech's origin—a 16-year-old Bartlet floor speech struck from the record, prompting Toby to question why it was removed.
Will links the speech's principles to the crisis in Khundu, citing C.J.'s casualty figures, as Toby realizes the speech's intent.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Absent but functionally part of the rhetorical coalition Will imagines.
Josh is named by Will as another senior counselor who would presumably support the President's impulses; he is not present but his mention is intended to suggest internal political cover for the doctrine.
- • (Implied) To manage political fallout and shepherd policy.
- • (Implied) To marshal political support for presidential initiatives.
- • Political calculation accompanies policy choices.
- • Senior staff can and should help shape public doctrine.
Not present physically but her reporting creates a somber, urgent subtext.
Referenced indirectly: C.J.'s morning casualty report (15,000) is invoked by Will to convert rhetorical language into an urgent response; she is not present but her figures drive the moral claim.
- • (Implied) To communicate casualty figures and shape public awareness.
- • (Implied) To manage press messaging around Khundu.
- • Accurate reporting matters to policy decisions.
- • Numbers can make moral claims unavoidable.
Absent but implicated; neutral procedural presence as the one who delivered materials for drafting.
Referenced as the person who dropped off the speech draft to Will; not physically present in the room but functionally the catalyst who supplied the text that provokes the debate.
- • To provide drafting materials to staff to aid speech preparation.
- • To keep the workflow moving by delivering pertinent documents.
- • Staffers need access to historical and draft material to do their jobs.
- • Passing along documents is a neutral, helpful act in the speechwriting process.
Wary and admonishing; his skepticism masks concern about practical consequences and the President’s credibility.
Sitting/standing across from Will, Toby listens critically, identifies the language as an old Bartlet draft stricken for a reason, pushes back on unilateral doctrinal invention and invokes institutional actors like the Pentagon, NSC and State to restrain precipitous policy.
- • To prevent naïve or unilateral doctrine-making that bypasses the interagency process.
- • To protect the President and the administration from rhetorical overreach that could produce strategic or political blowback.
- • To reframe drafting as craft—improve phrasing rather than invent policy alone.
- • Doctrine must be negotiated with institutions—Pentagon, NSC, State—before public articulation.
- • Old drafts were removed for reasons grounded in prudence and consequence.
- • Rhetoric without institutional backing is dangerous.
Off-stage but present in rhetorical authority; his past persona is invoked to justify new policy impulses.
Mentioned repeatedly as the author/source of the older language Will reads and as the moral authority whose past words are being reclaimed as present doctrine; not present in room.
- • (Implied) To articulate American values in influential public speech.
- • (Implied) To shape the moral framing available to current speechwriters.
- • Presidential rhetoric can define national values.
- • Past presidential language carries durable moral authority.
Absent but strategically implicated in Will's argument that senior counselors might back the doctrine.
Mentioned by Will as one of the President's senior counselors (Leo McGarry); invoked to suggest internal White House support or complicity for the proposed direction; not physically present.
- • (Implied) To counsel the President on policy and political consequences.
- • (Implied) To manage internal coordination on sensitive matters.
- • Senior staff shape and limit presidential actions.
- • Counsel can legitimize or restrain doctrinal shifts.
Affectionate and amused; she plays the role of a grounding, slightly flippant elder relative who also validates Will's urgency.
Present in the room, Elsie interjects with a wry historical quip about how the U.S. enforced policy mid-century and lightens the mood by mentioning the First Lady's fondness for her jokes while supporting Will's moral stance.
- • To support Will with familial humor and steady his rhetoric.
- • To diffuse tension with levity while signaling insider legitimacy (First Lady's approval).
- • Family and personal connections matter in politics and can influence outcomes.
- • Moral outrage is understandable and sometimes needs a human voice to translate it.
Not an emotional actor here; functions as a rhetorical foil to expose irony.
Invoked metaphorically by Toby ('Like Mother Theresa with first-strike capabilities') to highlight the dangerous incongruity of combining pure humanitarianism with military force.
- • To serve as a moral touchstone in the argument (rhetorical goal).
- • To catalyze Toby's critique of the proposed doctrine (rhetorical function).
- • Pure altruism and military coercion are conceptually incompatible in practice.
- • Invoking saints accentuates the absurdity of militarized idealism.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Bartlet 16-Year-Old Red Mass Speech Draft is invoked as the provenance of the controversial language. Though not physically produced as a separate artifact in the scene, Toby identifies its lines within the draft Will reads and reminds the room it was stricken from the record.
Stacy's Disputed Foreign Policy Speech Draft is the immediate catalyst: Will is reading passages from it aloud. The draft contains the struck Bartlet language and forces Toby to identify provenance and warn about past removal, turning the textual artifact into political tinder.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Republic of Equatorial Khundu is the immediate humanitarian crisis that Will invokes (via C.J.'s casualty figure) to justify values-based action, making the drafting debate an argument over whether the U.S. must act.
El Salvador functions as the historical referent Toby uses to anchor the struck draft: he says the language was about El Salvador and therefore was removed, turning an abstract rhetorical choice into a concrete lesson from past intervention.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The National Security Council is cited as another necessary forum for doctrine-making; Toby warns that NSC processes and interagency vetting are the correct venues for converting rhetoric into policy.
The Pentagon is named as a critical actor whose operational and personnel implications would flow from a new doctrine; Toby invokes it to remind Will that use-of-force language has immediate military consequences and institutional sensitivities.
The State Department is invoked by Toby as the traditional manager of diplomatic policy and caution; he lists it among the institutional bodies that should shape any new doctrine, framing State as a necessary counterweight to improvisational presidential 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: "America needs a new doctrine for a new century... based not just on our interest, but on our values, across the world.""
"TOBY: "I read it, I think, 16 years ago. It was about El Salvador and he had it stricken from the record and there was a reason.""
"WILL: "Okay, but C.J. this morning put the body count at 15,000.""