Closed Briefing — The Delta Force Decision
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Nancy summons President Bartlet and Leo McGarry for a private briefing, prompting Bartlet to excuse his staff from the meeting room.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Calmly authoritative—he conveys risk and confidence without theatrical flair, leaving moral calculus to civilian leaders.
Delivers the military assessment from the Situation Room: identifies units (Delta Force, First Special Forces, 26 Special Ops), the RH-66 Comanche platform, rehearsals in Ghana, the narrow operational window, and quantifies a 70% chance of success for the raid.
- • Convey an accurate, sober assessment of military options
- • Secure presidential authorization for the narrow, rehearsed raid
- • A tightly timed special-ops raid offers the best chance of saving hostages
- • Civilian authorization is necessary before committing elite forces
Controlled urgency — aware of protocol and the gravity of the information she is shepherding.
Formally summons the President and Mr. McGarry, clears the space for a private briefing, and facilitates the transition from staff meeting to classified crisis discussion.
- • Ensure principals have private access to critical intelligence
- • Maintain operational security and protocol during a volatile decision
- • Sensitive decisions require a narrow circle
- • Timely, direct delivery of intelligence to the President is essential
Quiet, respectful — aware of gravity, they withdraw without comment.
Physically stand, gather their things, and leave the meeting room promptly and deferentially, creating privacy for the President's classified discussion.
- • Provide privacy for principals to discuss classified matters
- • Maintain operational security by vacating the room
- • Sensitive discussions are for senior principals only
- • Orderly conduct protects institutional processes
Resolute outwardly, carrying a heavy private burden — determination tempered by the knowledge of lethal trade-offs.
Clears the room, takes or continues a tense phone connection, listens to intercut Situation Room reports, poses the blunt moral question about full deployment, and finally issues the authorization to attempt the Delta Force rescue.
- • Authorize an option that maximizes hostages' chance of survival
- • Take personal responsibility for the decision so staff are not forced to bear the moral cost
- • Lives of captured Marines are worth risking a narrow, high-expertise operation
- • As President he must own the decision and its consequences
N/A (agents of information) — their presence is an operational fact that raises confidence in location data.
Cited by Leo as corroborating electronic intercepts to fix the hostages' location in the barracks; their human reporting narrows the target and enables the operational recommendation.
- • Provide timely location intelligence
- • Corroborate technical intercepts to allow action
- • Human sources can validate or refute signals intelligence
- • Their reports will be acted upon if credible
N/A — functions as evidentiary input that raises the urgency and feasibility of a rescue.
Serves as the technical corroboration for the hostages' location; Leo explicitly cites intercepts alongside paid informants to justify the operational plan.
- • Provide reliable locational data for decision-making
- • Reduce uncertainty enough to permit a risky raid
- • Signals intelligence can establish target coordinates quickly
- • Combining HUMINT and SIGINT strengthens confidence
Implied terror and helplessness (not shown on-screen), the central human pressure behind the advisers' arguments.
Referenced by others as the endangered lives at stake; located in a barracks 37 miles east of Bitanga according to intercepts and informants, their fate driving the entire decision.
- • Survive captivity
- • Be extracted safely by U.S. forces
- • They depend on their command for rescue
- • Any large-scale, visible response could endanger them
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet picks up or continues a private phone connection to the Situation Room; the receiver functions as the narrative conduit that allows intercut exchanges, enabling the President to receive real-time intelligence and to issue the authorization.
The RH-66 Comanche is invoked by Fitzwallace as the primary attack-recon platform Delta Force will employ; its mention anchors the military plan in a concrete, rehearsal-tested capability and communicates how the raid would be executed.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The barracks 37 miles east of Bitanga is the identified location of the three captured Marines; it exists off-screen as the physical focal point of risk and rescue planning and the potential scene of execution if an inappropriate response is chosen.
The meeting room (adjacent staff office canonical entry) is the initial physical space where Nancy summons the President and staffers clear out; it becomes the threshold into confidential command-level decision making and the site where Bartlet takes the private line.
The Ghana training camp is referenced as the rehearsal site where Delta Force and supporting units have practiced the operation; it contextualizes the 70% success estimate and grounds the military option in recent preparation.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Delta Force is the named rescue force in Fitzwallace's briefing; its specialized capabilities, rehearsals, and likely tactics inform the President's choice and provide the operational backbone for the narrow raid option.
Foreign and Domestic Intelligence Agencies supply the SIGINT and HUMINT—electronic eavesdropping and paid informants—that locate the hostages and thereby make a raid feasible; their reporting creates the factual basis for the moral and operational decision.
First Special Forces is cited as an accompanying operational element to the Delta Force raid, contributing personnel, planning, and support to the narrow rescue option.
26 Special Ops is specified as the unit composition executing the raid; its recent rehearsals in Ghana underpin the 70% success estimate and the option's tactical plausibility.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The briefing on the Marines' location leads directly to Bartlet's authorization of the rescue mission."
"The detailed military operation plan is executed, resulting in the successful rescue of the hostages."
"The detailed military operation plan is executed, resulting in the successful rescue of the hostages."
"Bartlet's concern about the Marines' execution under full deployment foreshadows the later casualties from the retaliatory attack."
"Bartlet's concern about the Marines' execution under full deployment foreshadows the later casualties from the retaliatory attack."
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"LEO: Electronic eavesdropping and a couple of paid informants lead us to believe they're being held in a barracks about 37 miles east of Bitanga."
"LEO: Well, I don't know, but the three Marines would certainly be executed."
"FITZWALLACE: When they've got it right in Ghana, that's when we'll recommend that you give the order, sir, and if that happens, we believe there's a 70 percent chance of success."