Strangelove

Strangelove originates as a cinematic persona of Cold War absurdity and enters the series only as an off‑stage cultural cipher. Senior staff invoke his name—Josiah Bartlet utters a mordant quip here—to condense catastrophic strategic dread into dark comedy, to steady jittery teams, and to flag the grotesque logic of nuclear brinksmanship. The reference functions as rhetorical shorthand that critiques technocratic hubris, signals institutional cultural literacy, and permits a practiced gallows‑humor response to intelligence that would otherwise immobilize decision‑making.