Interagency Blowback — Reese Reassigned
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh updates Bartlet on State Department concerns about the foreign policy rewrite, highlighting interagency tensions.
Donna informs Josh about Jack Reese's abrupt reassignment to Aviano Air Base, revealing the political fallout from the Pentagon leak.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Frustrated and defensive—initially focused on procedural defense of the speech, then unsettled and protective when Reese's reassignment emerges.
Serves as the conduit between State and the President: reports that State believes the foreign-policy text is being rewritten, pushes treaty sensitivities, and then exits to discover Reese's transfer—moving from policy defense to personal outrage.
- • Protect the President from accusations of rewriting treaty-sensitive language.
- • Shield the White House from procedural attacks by State.
- • Understand and, if necessary, contest the circumstances of Reese's reassignment.
- • State will police language to protect treaties and institutional prerogatives.
- • Pentagon political moves should not be allowed to harm his team's morale or operational capacity.
- • Leaked or poorly managed policy changes are politically dangerous on Inauguration Day.
Unsettled and attentive—supportive in demeanor but visibly affected by the atrocity footage.
Acts as a steady aide: helps with Bible logistics, escorts the President briefly, accompanies Josh to watch Khundu footage and witnesses the emotional impact of the images.
- • Support the President and senior staff with logistical and emotional steadiness.
- • Provide pertinent facts (e.g., about the Washington Bible) without distracting from crisis needs.
- • Ceremonial details matter but can be postponed in the face of human catastrophe.
- • Aide duties include absorbing emotional fallout and enabling principals to act.
Reportedly angry and punitive—using bureaucratic levers to signal displeasure at White House intrusion into Pentagon affairs.
Referenced as the Secretary of Defense who has reacted angrily to the forced-depletion analysis and whose political muscle has produced Reese's reassignment; he operates off-screen but exerts coercive pressure.
- • Protect the Pentagon's institutional authority and resist perceived White House overreach.
- • Signal deterrence to those who bypass normal chains of command.
- • The Department of Defense must control narratives about casualty estimates.
- • Leaked or unauthorized analyses should be punished to maintain internal discipline.
Matter-of-fact and procedural—delivering items to keep the briefing moving.
Provides the routine foreign updates at the scene's start (Bhutan, General Assembly) that establish the meeting context and help the President pivot to the Khundu intelligence when Clark reports.
- • Succinctly brief the President on global items.
- • Keep the Roosevelt Room meeting orderly so critical items get addressed.
- • Routine diplomatic shifts deserve protocol but can be overtaken by crises.
- • Briefers must present facts without editorializing.
Concerned and controlled on the surface; morally shaken by the Khundu report and irritated at bureaucratic interference, masking anger with sarcasm.
Leads the pivot from ceremonial minutiae to crisis mode, absorbing Clark's euphemistic intelligence, pressing Leo for accountability about Pentagon reaction, and trading blunt, sardonic lines about State's worries while asserting executive ownership.
- • Understand the factual gravity of the Khundu atrocities.
- • Protect the integrity of his inaugural language while asserting presidential prerogative.
- • Prevent junior staff (Jack Reese) from being unfairly punished for following orders.
- • The presidency must speak plainly about moral crises; euphemisms are inadequate.
- • Interagency actors will deflect blame onto junior officers rather than accept White House responsibility.
- • Ceremony (inauguration rituals) must not trump urgent moral obligations.
Upset and protective—defensive about Reese and frustrated by the secrecy and punitive tone of the transfer.
Waits for Josh in the Outer Oval and delivers the blow: Jack Reese has been reassigned to Aviano and has his orders; presses for details and offers a theory about who could have requested the move.
- • Inform Josh about Reese's reassignment quickly and accurately.
- • Ascertain who requested the transfer and why.
- • Defend Reese's integrity and reputation by insisting on his account.
- • Reese did what he was asked and should not be punished unjustly.
- • Transfers can be used as bureaucratic punishment rather than legitimate personnel moves.
- • Insiders (Nancy, Leo, or the President) are the likeliest sources of such requests.
Wary and conciliatory—balancing anger at the Pentagon with the need to contain fallout and to shield the President where possible.
Privately informs the President that Jack Reese has been 'in trouble' and that Hutchinson knows Bartlet has seen the forced-depletion material; offers to find better information and manages damage control tone between President and Pentagon.
- • Contain political damage from the forced-depletion disclosure.
- • Gather clearer facts and defuse tensions between White House and Pentagon.
- • Protect staff and preserve presidential options.
- • Pentagon politics will produce reprisals that need to be managed pragmatically.
- • Information must be clarified before public responses; leaks must be contained.
- • He is the institutional anchor who must absorb and route crises.
Not observed directly; inferred to be resigned or constrained, having followed orders and now subject to bureaucratic discipline.
Referenced as the tangible casualty of interagency politics: staff report he 'got in trouble' and has been reassigned to Aviano after executing an order; he does not appear on-screen but is central as the human cost.
- • Presumably to carry out assigned duties discreetly and competently.
- • Avoid public controversy while performing sensitive tasks.
- • Following orders will be honored, not punished.
- • Military discretion protects both officers and policy.
Concerned and protective of treaty-consistent language (as reported by Josh).
Mentioned by Josh as a State Department contact alarmed that the inaugural's foreign-policy language is being rewritten; not present but invoked as part of the interagency friction.
- • Ensure inaugural language conforms to existing treaties and diplomatic positions.
- • Prevent unilateral doctrinal shifts without State coordination.
- • Speech language has real diplomatic consequences.
- • State must be consulted on language that affects treaties.
Worried about the ramifications of shifting language on international obligations (as reported).
Also cited by Josh as a State Department interlocutor worried about changes to the foreign-policy section; serves as an off-stage reminder of diplomatic caution.
- • Protect diplomatic continuity and treaty obligations.
- • Advise and push back where White House language could provoke allies or adversaries.
- • Language matters in diplomacy and must be guarded.
- • State Department is the steward of such continuity.
Professional and neutral—focused on data points being reported.
As 'Man 3rd' provides supplemental operational details (cleared joint exercise) during the briefing, helping to frame the Roosevelt Room's information flow prior to the Khundu revelation.
- • Deliver operational updates accurately.
- • Ensure the President has situational awareness across theaters.
- • Operational clearances matter for diplomatic signaling.
- • Details from different theaters must be coordinated in the briefing.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Forced Depletion Report is the catalytic, sensitive document referenced by Leo and Bartlet: its existence (and Bartlet's having seen it) provokes Secretary Hutchinson's ire, drives Pentagon retaliation against Jack Reese, and converts an intelligence exercise into a political scandal.
Jack Reese's Transfer Orders function as the tangible evidence of administrative punishment: Donna and Josh discuss the orders as proof that Reese has been reassigned to Aviano, turning abstract Pentagon displeasure into a real, human consequence.
The Roosevelt Room television broadcasts Khundu atrocity footage that shifts the meeting from diplomatic items to moral emergency; images underscore the President's and staff's urgency and provide the emotional backdrop for policy and personnel consequences.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The West Wing Hallway provides the transitional geography connecting Roosevelt Room, Leo's office, and the Oval; it's where quick exchanges, decisions about ceremonial details (the Bible) and movement between formal and private spaces occur during the pivot.
Josh's Bullpen Area is where Donna informs Josh of Reese's transfer and where staff watch the Khundu footage; it becomes the place that translates policy fallout into workplace gossip, anxiety, and protective energy.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The CIA (and its intelligence officers) supplies the blunt, euphemistic intelligence—'neighbors are swapping family members'—that reframes the briefing from conventional items to evidence of systematic atrocities, forcing moral clarity from the President and staff.
The Pentagon is the engine of the backlash: Hutchinson's anger over the forced-depletion analysis produces punitive personnel action (Reese's transfer) and creates a friction point between defense and the White House.
The State Department is invoked as the institutional guardian of treaty-sensitive language; its officials (Jeffrey Tomlinson, Bob Bibbet) press Josh with alarm that the inaugural foreign-policy section is being rewritten, creating diplomatic friction on Inauguration Day.
The White House acts as the organizing institution where the moral crisis, speech politics, and personnel consequences intersect; senior staff triage intelligence, craft messaging, and absorb human impact on aides (Reese).
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's order of a forced depletion report leads to Jack Reese's reassignment as political fallout."
"Leo's confrontation with Hutchinson about Pentagon leaks leads to Jack Reese's reassignment."
"Leo's confrontation with Hutchinson about Pentagon leaks leads to Jack Reese's reassignment."
"Clark's revelation of 'swapping family members' is emotionally echoed in Josh's explanation to Charlie of the same horrific practice."
"Clark's revelation of 'swapping family members' is emotionally echoed in Josh's explanation to Charlie of the same horrific practice."
"Clark's revelation of 'swapping family members' is emotionally echoed in Josh's explanation to Charlie of the same horrific practice."
"Clark's revelation of 'swapping family members' is emotionally echoed in Josh's explanation to Charlie of the same horrific practice."
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"CLARK: Neighbors are... swapping family members."
"JOSH: I did just get off the phone with Jeffrey Tomlinson and Bob Bibbet. BARTLET: Tell them... JOSH: They're under... I'm sorry, sir, they're under the impression that the entire foreign policy section is being rewritten. BARTLET: It's not."
"DONNA: I don't know what's going on, but Jack's been reassigned. JOSH: To where? DONNA: Aviano. JOSH: When? DONNA: He got his orders."