Here’s the transcript of the Clip:
SAM
You mind my asking how the meeting with the Chinese ambassador went?
BARTLET
Well, how do you think it went?
SAM
I think they said if Taiwan tests the Patriots, they’ll start their exercises.
BARTLET
That’s right, except they didn’t call them Patriots. What did they call them?
SAM
US-made Patriots.
BARTLET
Right.
SAM
They want us to say we’re gonna roll back our sale of arms to Taiwan.
BARTLET
Good.
SAM
But we’re not going to stop arming Taiwan.
BARTLET
No.
SAM
Especially not now when they’re trying to hold free elections.
BARTLET
Right.
SAM
Plus it’s the law.
BARTLET
Yeah.
SAM
So we sell them the Orions and we sell them the AMRAAMs...
BARTLET
[looking at the board] Your move.
SAM
Hang on... You’ve got two carrier groups headed to the Taiwan Strait...
BARTLET
Move.
SAM
Plus, the Carl Vincent in the South China Sea... [moves a figure on the board]
Beijing wants you to scale back the weapons and you’re not going to do it...
SAM
You know, sir, I looked something up while you were gone. Eisenhower, it seemed, at all costs wanted to avoid sending ships to resupply Quemoy and Matsu, ‘cause they’d be less then a mile from the Chinese army. A private could... well, everybody was a private in Mao’s army, but a private could fire on a ship and that’d be it. We’d be at war. We’d have to be.
BARTLET
Yeah.
SAM
Eisenhower wouldn’t do it.
BARTLET
No.
SAM
Why are you?
BARTLET
Look at the whole board.
SAM
I am.
BARTLET
You’re not.
SAM
I’m trying!
BARTLET
Sam...
SAM
Why were the carrier groups in the Taiwan Strait?
BARTLET
Are they in the Taiwan Strait?
SAM
They’re on their way.
BARTLET
Is that the same thing?
SAM
How does this end?
Leo knocks and walks into the office.
LEO
Sir.
BARTLET
[to Sam] Like this.
Bartlet walks to Leo to read the note he brought him.
BARTLET
Turn them around. I’ll make some calls and thank people.
LEO
Yes, sir.
BARTLET
Thank you, by the way.
LEO
You, too. [leaves]
Bartlet returns to Sam and hands him the piece of paper.
SAM
I’d like to try it without looking at the note.
BARTLET
[sits down] Okay.
SAM
China agrees to stand down the war games.
BARTLET
Right.
SAM
And they agree to let Taiwan test the Patriots. One Patriot.
BARTLET
Yes.
SAM
And we... Please, I want to be right about this. We agree not to sell Taiwan the Aegis Destroyers for a period of... I don’t know... five years.
BARTLET
Ten years, but you’ve got it.
SAM
Sir, the Aegis... the Aegis radar technology isn’t something that... I mean, what if Taiwan
did fall to China? Now they have – plus these ships cost something like $800 million apiece. Buying four of them would eat half of Taiwan’s defense budget.
BARTLET
And so...
SAM
You never were going to sell them the destroyers.
BARTLET
[shakes his head] But everybody wakes up alive in the morning and saves a little face.
it really isn’t as long as it seems though it is a 2 parter, that’s what the “~~~~” is
