WEBVTT - How the National Security Council Works 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:13.840 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:20.119 There's Charles W. Cloak and Dagger Dabby Coleman Bryant. You 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.959 remember that movie, Yeah, man, that was so good. It 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.160 was that was a good movie for boys our age. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:27.840 I think, yeah, it was so good. It managed to 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:32.640 make the San Antonio Riverwalk look interesting. You've been bagging 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.400 on that since you walked it. Well, I had. I 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.760 think it was built up in my mind by that movie, 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:41.200 you know what I mean. I don't remember that being 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.599 in the movie, but I haven't. I don't think I've 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:45.720 seen that since I was there's a big chase scene 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.400 that involved the river walk. Well maybe that was a problem. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:57.120 And also, um, there's Jerry Leslie Nielsen Rowland from Spy Heart. Uh. 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.960 And this is stuff you should know. Yes, this is 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.759 a This could be a good one. You could also 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:11.000 be extraordinarily confusing. Uh huh. Maybe a little dry maybe, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.720 um and uh but brother, if you love bureaucracies, you're 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.800 gonna love this one. Yeah, boy, that really came through. Huh. Yeah. 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:24.240 If you're into organs and flow charts and directors but 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.240 not director. It's you're gonna just love this kind of stuff. Yeah, 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.800 and I apologize about my squinting. Uh I lost my glasses. 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:36.520 Oh no, and it takes and it had become you know, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:38.560 had grown to depend on them. To be honest, you're 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.600 like velma, I am. That's terrible. I mean like like 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.080 lost him, lost him, or they're just like on your bedside, 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.000 you forgot them. You want to know what happened. I 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.960 was on in my bed on my laptop, wearing my 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.440 glasses last week. I said I gotta go get something 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.760 out of the car. I put the laptop down and 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.080 the glasses down on the bed and went and got 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.000 something out of my car. Came back and they were gone. Wow, 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:06.720 that's bizarre. And I think my new puppy like grabbed 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.080 them and did something with them. Oh, that's gonna be 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.320 a treat defined later on. I mean, dude, I've looked 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:20.160 everywhere and literally vanished, but the puppy left your laptop. Yeah, 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.120 well that's weird. I know. Well anyway, I'm waiting, are 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.440 you getting some new ones? Did you go to Eckard 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:30.040 or CVS or Dwayne Read or whatever. I probably should 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.160 have just gotten some little cheapy readers, because that's kind 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.600 of all I need them for, you know, or did 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.440 you use your monocle? Oh? Man, I should have brought 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:42.320 my monocle. That's a great idea. All right, well, I'm 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.360 full of them. I did not, so I'm just waiting 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:46.920 for new glasses. And they don't even they don't have 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.120 the frames that I've had, so I had to pick 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.960 up new ones, which always thinks because I did just 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.480 none of them look you know, good? Well, if you 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.160 can kind of recreate the last ones, they look good. Well. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.320 I'm trying. Well, I guess one more quick question on this. 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:08.080 How is driving here? Uh reckless dangerous? Oh no, no no, no, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.440 I just need him for reading. I'm okay, okay, good, good, good. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.320 I don't read while I drive anymore. That's smart too, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:19.120 even though you could with your glasses. That's correct. Uh So, Chuck, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:23.799 we're talking today about the National Security Council, and uh, 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.200 up until I started researching this, I thought that that 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:28.799 was specifically an American thing, But it turns out most 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:32.920 countries have their own National Security Council and they fairly 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.040 closely resemble this kind of thing. I would I would 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.840 guess that, but I also realized I really had no 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.320 idea what the National Security Council did. But it's like 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.320 it's a pretty it's a pretty genius idea, UM. And 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.920 it was one that was implemented by the US Congress, 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.640 I should say. The American one was back in nine seven, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:57.320 and it was basically like, hey, you've got competing groups 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:02.920 here that are all trying to shape um American foreign policy, 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.560 whether it's through diplomacy with the State Department, or through 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.640 military with the Department of Defense, or the military itself UM, 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.120 or you know by UM yeah, the CIA by snooping 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:20.680 UM or even groups as desparate as like the Department 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.800 of Energy or the Department of the Treasury. All of 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.560 these groups have their own objectives in shaping policy or 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.520 responding to a crisis as far as foreign policy goes, right, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.040 And if you take all these people and put them 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:38.400 in a room together and say fight it out, and 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.440 the President gets to watch and laugh and then pick 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:47.920 what he or eventually she thinks is the best the 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:53.440 best option, then you have basically, uh, the best ideal 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:59.359 version of UM hashing something out through a group that 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.800 you could POSSI we hoped for. And that's the point 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.720 of the National Security Council. Yeah, but one thing, and 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.800 we're going to talk about the Situation Room specifically, But 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.480 one thing I learned in researching that part of it 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.640 was this kind of we'll not chilling quote very sensible quote, 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.080 but still a little chilling. Is there's always more intelligence 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:24.760 information available than there is time for senior decision makers 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.840 to read. Right, So basically, like you know, there there's 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.720 more than they even have, so that you need committees 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.360 and staffs of people that can distill the most important 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.000 stuff down to its most important core right and and 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:42.960 the way to do this they the way that it 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:47.040 has generally been done through the National Security Council is 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:54.120 by decentralizing UM responsibility for watching over these different things, 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.320 whether it be like a specific policy like energy policy, 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.400 and the way it relates to foreign foreign kind trees 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:06.240 or UM like territories like say some some groups responsible 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.719 for the Middle East. You have all these different groups 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.320 that are responsible for keeping an eye on this stuff. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.240 Thinking about American policy, thinking about how state in American 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.479 policy is changing or evolving as say a situation or 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.840 a new leader UM emerges in a different area UM 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:29.520 and then as crises or needs for decisions arise, then 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.000 the need to talk about this policy. It bubbles up 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:35.279 and up and up through the hierarchy until finally it 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.560 gets to the point where there's like secretaries, cabinet level 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:45.520 secretaries who are saying Mr Again or eventually Madam President, Uh, 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.080 we need a decision on this. Here are options. It 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:54.640 is incredibly complex, Like you said, it's not just like, um, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.520 you know what what bad leader in the world is 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:00.800 doing something today. It's that plus about a thousand other 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:05.240 things from like you know, like you said, it could 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.960 be is is something as simple as uh, or not 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.080 as simple but as like non threatening as you know, 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.720 an energy policy with a country with a new leader. 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.000 Like you said, you know, there's something that needs attention 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:24.240 outside of our borders. And and by making it bubble 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.440 up through these levels of hierarchy, you have people who 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:33.600 have increasing levels of responsibility. And as each level of 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:37.000 responsibility starts saying, yeah, this is worth kicking up to 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.360 the next higher level because we really do need some 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:41.920 sort of decision on this, it takes on further and 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.840 further credence right until it reaches that highest level, the 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.360 actual what's actually called the National Security Council UM and 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.760 when when it reaches that level, hopefully a decision will 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.000 be made. But that's not necessarily the cases we'll see. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.720 Should we talk about history. Let's talk history, man, you know. 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.800 Uh so our article and this was okay, um, and 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.760 once supple supplemented with other supplemented, I'm gonna I like that. 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:14.120 I like it to gonna keep that, once supplemented with 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:21.280 other things. I had a friend grown up. He said that, um. 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:22.840 And it was one of those things where I would 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.200 say say spa getty and he would say spuck getty. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.080 I would say spaghetti, he'd say basketty. You'd just like 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:32.520 pinch the bridge of your nose and shake your hand 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.960 basically as a four year old. Uh no, was this 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.280 is like early teens. Um, it's not good. Alright. So 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.079 throughout history we had not we have not historically had 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.360 the National Security Council, um, because I think in the 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.880 earlier days, presidents had their sort of inner circle that 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.520 kind of acted like what eventually the National Security Council 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:58.439 how how they would counsel and advise, but they were 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.880 just known as sort of like you know, the bros 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.960 of the president pretty much, you know. Yeah, it was 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.720 it was like who do you trust or specifically who 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.960 who has the expertise needed to help guide your decision 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:14.600 on this right. And I think one of the reasons 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.160 why there wasn't a National Security Council for most of 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.360 histories because most presidents kind of bristle at the idea 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:25.040 of having a bureaucracy hoisted or foisted on them, where 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:26.760 they're just like, no, no, no, I got this. I 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:28.720 just I need to ask who I need to ask 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:31.920 at any given point in time. And some presidents were 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.680 historically known for even even the people that they asked 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:39.280 advice from, they'd be like, thank you for your advice, 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.440 I'm rejecting it outright, like like Lincoln was apparently famous 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:45.480 for that. Yeah, I mean Lincoln was a smart fellow. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.320 He probably had good ideas on his own, well he did. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.120 He also had he was He was famous for having 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.439 that team of rivals right where not only were people 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.040 in his cabinet rivals with one another, they were rivals 0:09:58.040 --> 0:10:01.199 with him as well and really challenged him to keep 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.160 people in check. Like his Secretary of State Seward, William Seward, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:09.040 he was big time against the Civil War from happening. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:10.839 He did not he didn't want to happen. He was 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:13.120 just like, okay, south Sea, it was nice you guys 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.640 being a part of the Union, but we'll figure it out. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.679 We we shouldn't, we shouldn't go to war. And he 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:22.120 was like opening lines of communication with the Confederacy, going 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:26.920 around Lincoln and trying to subvert Lincoln's basically wishes that 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:30.320 that the South not succeed. And Lincoln said, you better 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:35.920 watch your step. Yeah, that was a good Daniel Dave Lewis, 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.800 It wasn't at all. Uh no, but you're right. He 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:43.800 famously um kind of you know, would listen to a device, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:46.920 even if seward and and say no, you know, on 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.720 the president, this is my choice. Yeah, he said, quote 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.320 if this must be done, I must do it. And 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.720 and that was kind of the way that the president's 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:57.600 I mean, it takes a certain kind of person to 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.360 be a president, right, and usually if you are elected president, 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:03.040 you're not the kind of person who's like, what do 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.520 you guys think? Hey over there, what's your what's your opinion? 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.040 What should I do? It's it's like, go do this. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.520 I'm the president the end, do it, right. But as 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.920 the United States grew and the world grew a little 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:21.640 more complexities, uh were brought out obviously, especially with in 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.720 terms of foreign policy and um, especially after World War Two, 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.120 there were you know, Congress was not thrilled with the 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.480 way FDR kind of ran things, and they said, you 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:35.040 know what I think we need and the president needs help, 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:38.319 uh in the form of you know, a body, an 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:43.400 official body, sanctioned body surrounding him to help him make decisions. Uh. 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.760 And so eventually in nine is when the National Security 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:51.960 Act was passed and this council was created to quote 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.720 advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic 0:11:55.760 --> 0:12:00.559 foreign military policies relating to national security and other off 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:04.000 and it's it's again, this is a significant act because 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.560 it's saying, uh, Mr President, here's the bureaucracy that you 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.240 didn't ask for and you don't want, but we're putting 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.080 on you on your shoulders because this stuff is just 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.160 too big now, Like we're a superpower and we can't 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.280 just leave it up to you and your formal informal 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.800 management style of ad hoc working groups that you just 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:27.320 pull into the Oval office whenever you need some advice. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.319 We need something far more structured than that. So we're 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.640 going to pass a Congressional Act that we're going to 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.800 force you to sign into law. And Truman actually signed 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.920 it into law in ninety seven, and from that point 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:41.680 on there was a structure that the president was expected 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.600 to use when making foreign policy decisions, so that he 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:48.040 would have all of the um, all of the options, 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:52.360 all of the opinions, all of the varying um factors 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:55.640 in any any given situation before him, so that he 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.480 can say option D, I like it. Yeah, And like 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:03.440 you said before, you know, different presidents over the years 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.680 have had different Uh, there's a lot of leeway within 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.560 how you want to run your National Security Council, how 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.760 it structured. It's not completely set in stone, as we've 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.720 seen recently. And we'll we'll talk a little bit about 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.600 what's going on now, but you know, throughout since ninety seven, 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:23.920 basically each president has sort of had their own reasons 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.240 for leaning on it a lot or not leaning on 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:30.400 it that much. Initially, Truman, after kind of right after 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.600 it was passed through, was kind of uh, you know, 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.520 he didn't go to meetings a lot until after the 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:38.640 Korean War, and then he was like, oh, wait a minute, 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.679 I think there's a lot of value here. Um, Eisenhower, 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.280 being former military, was sort of used to that, uh 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:52.120 that system of committees and bureaucracy, and uh he he 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:53.559 kind of took to it right away and was like, no, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.800 this is great. I'm gonna even kind of expand the 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.559 NFC and create you know, these uh these special or boards, 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:02.920 and I'm actually going to create someone called the National 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:07.360 Security Advisor. Yeah, which is a huge thing, huge contribution 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.079 to the National Security Council that Eisenhower made. And yeah, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:12.719 since he was used to the military, he's like, yeah, 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.400 let's make this even more regimented than Congress wanted. And 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.600 he put it to good work. But since then it's been, 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.040 um typically more pared down than what Eisenhower had. I 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:27.440 think he had like probably the most hierarchical and decentralized 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.240 and spread out National Security Council of any president ethan 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.520 more than Obama even Yeah, Obama had I think a 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.880 huge bloated one, but I think it didn't have as 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:42.760 many say like departments or committees or um. That kind 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.600 of thing is Eisenhower's. Because Obama received a lot of 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.720 criticism for that, and from what I read right rightly 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.800 so that that it was basically a it was a 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:59.160 huge stalling mechanism that Obama used to to put off 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.880 form policy decisions or to make them outside of his 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.240 own cabinet. Well, and even if it wasn't purposeful, it's just, 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.000 you know how it is with bureaucracy. The more bloated 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.040 an organization gets, just the slower everything is gonna move, 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.240 and the harder it's gonna be to get anything done. 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.160 Uh that's just kind of how it works. Um So, 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.600 Kennedy comes along and uh had a had a kind 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:27.880 of a disaster on his hands with the Bay of Pigs, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.440 kind of which we should do a show on at 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.040 some point. And uh so he he looked to his 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:37.120 um national Security adviser, MC George Bundy, the man with 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:43.200 two last names, and said, uh, we need a chill 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:48.720 room to hang out and make decisions. And how about 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.280 that bowling alley? Yeah it was FDRs bowling alley, and 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.880 FDR side up from his grave and said, not my 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:02.360 bowling alley, right, And that's when the situation Room was created, which, um, 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.240 I thought this was really neat. I didn't know much 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.040 about the situation Room. I thought it was the room. 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.040 Um I didn't know that it was five thousand square 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:14.360 feet of different rooms on the ground floor of the 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.760 west wing. Yeah. The wood shed. Yeah, that's the nickname 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.080 for which I didn't get why they call it that, 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.000 because you know here in the States the woodsheds typically 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.480 used and take them out behind the wood shed. Usually 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.320 that means getting a spanking. Well maybe that's you know 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.080 what happens in the woods In the situation room, they 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.160 watched they watched people get spanked. I guess on closed 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:45.880 circuit TV. I guarantee they do. Uh. Should we take 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:47.600 a break and then talk about the situation room a 0:16:47.600 --> 0:17:15.560 little more? Yeah? Yeahs So Chuck, we're talking about situation room. 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.840 Uh and not with Wolf Flitzer, No, never, And um, 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:25.879 it was started with Kennedy, right, And uh, did you 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.119 see the picture in that one of the articles you 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.240 sent me of the situation where I think it was 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.960 the wood shed One one of them had like dozens 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.440 and dozens of pictures, which kind of surprised me that one, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.119 that one, But there was a picture in there, and 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.000 I think it was the original situation room that they 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.240 that Kennedy had set up. And basically it was a 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.760 bunch of chairs and like a huge map of the 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:48.600 world on the wall. There was some situation room like 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.760 the war room from Strange Love. They call in like 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.159 a nine year old civil servant to come in and 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:59.480 move attack from you know, Ecuador to Guatemala, and then 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:05.200 he just show full back out. Uh. This thing apparently 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:07.000 used to be I mean, it went under a big 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.520 renovation in two thousand six, and apparently before that was 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.119 a UM. I don't get the idea that it was 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:19.360 necessarily um antiquated, but it wasn't certainly up to the 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.679 kind of modern technological uh level that it needed to be. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:26.440 Let's just say that. Yeah. I also have the impression 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:31.800 that it was um a lot more luxurious originally, but 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.800 that things like the mahogany paneling actually made it hard 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.320 to hear people on speaker phone, right. Um, So they 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.520 kind of just updated it to probably much more in 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:46.200 line of what people thought it looked like all along. Yeah. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.280 That that main room, where you know you've probably seen 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.440 the most photos of, has six flat screens. UM. Very 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:56.080 secure obviously for video conferencing with whoever you want around 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.640 the world. Uh. Links directly to Air Force one, which 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.520 is kind a neat. Uh. They have you know, private 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:08.800 meeting rooms, private phone booth rooms. Uh. Secure video rooms. 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.480 It's like, you know, it's kind of like what you 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:15.720 would expect. Um, you can't text from there, you can't 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.320 like you know, they don't want things leaking out of there. 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.159 So it's just and it is not a bunker like 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.159 a lot of people might think. But yeah, there's some 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.840 windows to the exterior of the White House. Yeah, but 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.239 it feels like a bunker and that all these you know, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.479 kind of very private and secure areas, but it's not 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.800 like deep underground or anything like that, right right. Yeah. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.080 I think the room where there's that famous photo of 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:41.560 everybody in the Obama National Security Council watching the ben 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.200 Laden raid ben Laden spanking. Yeah, yeah, behind the wood shed, 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.520 um and they that that, I think that that is 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.080 a it's an enclosed, windowless room that's that is cut off, 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.280 has kind of bunker like qualities, but it's the the 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.120 whole the whole interior itself is not a bunker. It's 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.879 not underground like you said. Correct. Uh. They have a staff, 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:08.160 the situation room staff. It's about thirty people in general, 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:10.840 and there are they're organized into what's called watch teams. 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.000 And these watch teams do uh well, they don't take 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:20.919 the night off seven monitoring of everything basically. Um. And 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.040 it says there's usually three duty officers, a communications assistant, 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:30.200 and an intelligence analyst on each watch team. And um, 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.600 you know, presidents throughout the years have used the situation 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:36.600 room sparingly sometimes. Uh. I think in the case of Kennedy, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.520 he liked to be in the Oval office a little more. Um. 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.320 And they say Lyndon Johnson was in the situation room 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.840 so much that he even moved his Oval office chair 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:49.240 down there. Yeah. Nixon and Ford apparently never used the room. 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:54.840 Uh h w Bush and Clinton use it a lot. Uh. 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.879 And in that two thousand six expansion they included UM 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.480 offices for Homeland Security Council now in the White House 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.440 Chief of Staffs offices down there now, which is pretty interesting. 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.960 But um, apparently you get nominated to be part of 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:14.400 the personnel. Oh yeah, I'm quite sure. It is a 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.879 highly prestigious tour, their two year tours, and I'm sure 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.920 it's just absolutely grueling because basically, they make you watch 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.600 cable news from around the world all day long. There's 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:31.320 also tons of cables coming in from the from various 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:35.720 embassies around the country. All of the intelligence, raw intelligence 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:40.800 gets coming through um this room. Right. So apparently after 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:43.480 the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy was like, I think he 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.640 felt cut off from actual raw intelligence and he hadn't 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:51.920 been presented with the correct actual intelligence. So he created 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:58.760 this Situation Room to basically circumvent the the intelligence community 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:04.439 and to have his ends on raw intelligence. Right. So 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.679 you've got intelligence coming from around the world going to 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.440 the various intelligence agencies, but each intelligence agency is also 0:22:11.240 --> 0:22:15.400 commanded to send their raw intelligence to the Situation Room, 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.640 and then it's up to this Situation Room staff to say, uh, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.000 this seems important, This isn't the important, this is pretty important, 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:26.840 and they compile it all into different briefings that the 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.199 president gets daily, usually in the morning and in the 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.520 evening as well. Yeah, and if you're part of this staff, 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.320 you're you're like, we said, handpicked for that to year thing, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.600 and you're they said, you know, it's it's a very 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:41.600 big deal. You have to have an even temperament um. 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:44.040 You have to be cool under pressure. You have to 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:46.920 be able to have these spur of the moment coherent 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:50.680 intelligent conversations like with the President on a moment's notice. 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:55.840 You can't be like President I can believe it's you. Uh. 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:58.480 And apparently, um, this article said you know, I think 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:00.239 this from the CIA had said, you know, you need 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:01.840 to check your ego at the door at this job. 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:06.800 One director situation room director said to an incoming duty officer, 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:09.600 just remember there are many important people who work in 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:12.240 the White House, and you're not one of them. I 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:16.800 love that quote. Uh. So you know, the it varies 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:20.880 with the presidents. But basically every day the watch team 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:24.840 puts together something called the morning Book, uh for the President, 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.920 the Vice president and you know whoever on the White 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:31.800 House staff is I guess authorized to get this. Uh. 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:36.159 And in this morning book is the well, it's a 0:23:36.240 --> 0:23:42.720 daily affirmation. That's the first thing. The National Intelligence Daily 0:23:42.760 --> 0:23:45.000 is in there. The State Department's Morning Summary is in there, 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:50.320 any kind of intelligence reports, um. And then I think 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:53.600 a family circus cartoon, right, just to keep things light 0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:59.239 right and in it in it pgs, says PASQUETI. Uh. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:01.280 And then the morning book is this is in the 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.400 car the National Security Advisor when they're picked up. And 0:24:04.440 --> 0:24:07.240 they also had the President's Daily brief that's the CIA's 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:12.760 daily prepared briefing basically, and like this is every day. 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:17.160 These are these briefs and reports that these senior people 0:24:17.680 --> 0:24:21.800 and staff get every single morning of every single day 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.520 of every year, right and and just to give you 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.680 kind of in an an idea of how how much 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.639 information is coming into these poor SAPs twenty four hours 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:35.600 a day. If something does happen, right, if there's like 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:38.919 a crisis somewhere around the world, there's like a revolution 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:42.879 breaking out, um, you would have all of the people 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:47.359 who are involved in that crisis, say that area or 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:50.159