Chuck Bryant

And just to get out wasn't worth it, basically.

Yeah, and I get the idea.

I mean, I was but five at the time, not super into politics yet.

But I get the idea that getting American troops out of Korea was probably a pretty popular idea that Carter was laying out.

Yeah, especially after Vietnam.

Yeah, well, and Kissinger was still ticked off about Vietnam.

So he was like, if we don't do this, it's going to send a message that...

to other Asian countries and the USSR and China, that we have no resolve and that we're going to stand down.

And, you know, he wanted his guy Ford back in there, obviously.

So he was outvoted, like he said, thankfully.

But he was like...

all right, we still need a show of force.

Like we need to do something.

And the one thing that everybody in the room agreed on, even if it was, I mean, I know it was somewhat strategical, but it was also symbolic.

They were like, we're cutting that GD tree down.

No matter what anyone else says, we're going to cut that thing down.

And they were all like, harumph, harumph.

So, yeah, they decided, OK, we're not going to actually destroy anything.

We're not going to fire any missiles.

We're not going to kill anybody.