WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.099 Welcome to today's deep dive I am so excited 00:00:04.099 --> 00:00:06.160 for you to hear this one because we are looking 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:10.480 at something that is just It's wild. Oh, it really 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:12.279 is. It's one of those historical moments. That 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:15.660 sounds like a movie script, right? So today we 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:18.359 are relying on a single really comprehensive 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:21.239 source. It's a Wikipedia article that details 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:25.059 well a very controversial audio clip from 1984. 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.539 Yeah, very short audio clip. Exactly, just nine 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:29.839 seconds. And the phrase in this clip is, quote, 00:00:30.219 --> 00:00:33.840 we begin bombing in five minutes. Which is, I 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:35.679 mean, that's an incredible thing to hear from 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:38.140 a world leader. Right. So our mission today for 00:00:38.140 --> 00:00:41.340 you listening is to explore how a private, totally 00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:43.700 off the record joke by a U .S. president somehow 00:00:43.700 --> 00:00:46.340 became a massive global news event. And not just 00:00:46.340 --> 00:00:48.460 news, right? It literally triggered a military 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:51.280 alert. Yeah, actual military movement. So we're 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.539 going to look at how that happened and what it 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:55.439 teaches us about the immense weight of words, 00:00:55.579 --> 00:00:58.640 especially in an era of really high geopolitical 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:01.420 tension. Absolutely. Because to really understand 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:04.340 how a throwaway joke goes global, we have to 00:01:04.340 --> 00:01:06.620 look at the environment, right? Like, what makes 00:01:06.620 --> 00:01:08.959 a leader comfortable enough? to drop their guard 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:11.000 in the first place. Yeah, set the scene for us. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:14.540 So it's August 11th, 1984. OK. It's just past 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:16.780 nine in the morning, and we are at Rancho del 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:18.859 Cielo. That's Ronald Reagan's vacation home, 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:22.000 right? In California. Exactly. And Reagan is 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.319 getting ready for his weekly radio address to 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.939 the nation. Right. And from what the source says, 00:01:29.290 --> 00:01:32.170 The actual speech he intended to give that morning 00:01:32.170 --> 00:01:35.310 was pretty standard, like very formal. Oh, completely 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:37.469 by the book. Yeah, he was just officially announcing 00:01:37.469 --> 00:01:40.109 that he'd signed the Equal Access Act. Right. 00:01:40.250 --> 00:01:43.689 Which was this legislation that essentially allowed 00:01:43.689 --> 00:01:46.689 student religious groups to meet in public high 00:01:46.689 --> 00:01:49.269 schools, you know, during non -school hours. 00:01:49.310 --> 00:01:51.109 Yeah, it was a totally standard domestic policy 00:01:51.109 --> 00:01:53.670 update. Nothing crazy. But before he actually 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:55.730 delivers those official remarks, he has to do 00:01:55.730 --> 00:01:57.849 a sound check. Right, with the audio engineers 00:01:57.849 --> 00:02:00.620 from NPR? Public Radio, yeah. And the thing you 00:02:00.620 --> 00:02:02.959 have to remember about Reagan is his background. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:06.099 He understood the psychological separation between, 00:02:06.099 --> 00:02:08.800 you know, the hot camera and the cold room better 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.000 than almost anyone in politics at the time. Because 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.879 of his acting career. Exactly. Decades in show 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:15.979 business. He was just incredibly comfortable 00:02:15.979 --> 00:02:18.360 in the studio setting. So instead of doing a 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:21.639 boring, you know, one, two, three testing kind 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:24.180 of thing. Right. He decides to be funny. Yeah, 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:26.780 he injects some levity, he leans into the mic, 00:02:26.900 --> 00:02:29.000 and he riffs on his own prepared remarks. Okay, 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:31.319 let's unpack this exact quote, because the pivot 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:34.919 he makes from domestic policy to this joke is 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:38.580 it's honestly jarring. It really is. He says, 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:41.659 quote, my fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell 00:02:41.659 --> 00:02:44.000 you today that I've signed legislation that will 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.900 outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five 00:02:46.900 --> 00:02:50.259 minutes. I mean, wow. Yeah. It's like checking 00:02:50.259 --> 00:02:52.860 your microphone before a massive virtual presentation 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:56.419 at work, right? But you do it by making a joke 00:02:56.419 --> 00:02:59.060 about, like, burning the company down. That is 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:01.719 a perfect analogy. Why on earth would a sitting 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:04.419 president joke about mutually assured destruction? 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:07.800 Like, it just seems so reckless. Well, it sounds 00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:10.219 incredibly shocking to modern ears, for sure. 00:03:10.409 --> 00:03:13.169 But the source provides some really important 00:03:13.169 --> 00:03:15.669 context here. You have to view it through the 00:03:15.669 --> 00:03:18.469 lens of Reagan's specific behind -the -scenes 00:03:18.469 --> 00:03:21.490 demeanor. Okay. For him, this wasn't a calculated 00:03:21.490 --> 00:03:24.490 policy statement at all. It was literally just 00:03:24.490 --> 00:03:26.669 banter with the technicians to break the ice 00:03:26.669 --> 00:03:28.810 before going live. So this was normal for him? 00:03:28.909 --> 00:03:31.490 Yeah, entirely common. Throughout his show business 00:03:31.490 --> 00:03:34.909 and political careers, he used humor during downtime, 00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:37.610 outtakes, sound checks, all the time. Okay, but 00:03:37.610 --> 00:03:40.960 here is where the... the mechanical reality of 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.219 the situation kind of clashes with his intent, 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:46.479 right? Because if it was just a sound check, 00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:49.400 just banter before the broadcast, how did the 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:51.939 text of that joke end up on the front pages of 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:53.860 newspapers? That is the big question. Because 00:03:53.860 --> 00:03:55.719 it's not like today, you know, today someone 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:57.819 in the room discreetly records it on their smartphone. 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:00.139 They upload it to social media and boom, it's 00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:02.460 everywhere. Exactly. The infrastructure was totally 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:06.599 different. And that brings us to how audio syndication 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:10.080 actually worked in 1984. Okay, lay it out for 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.800 me. So, in the minutes leading up to a presidential 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.919 speech, there's a live audio feed from the ranch 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.379 in California. Right. But that feed wasn't just 00:04:18.379 --> 00:04:21.040 going to one isolated soundboard in a closed 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.180 room. It was already being transmitted over network 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:27.980 lines to radio stations and newsrooms all across 00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:31.069 the United States. Oh, wow. So it's like thinking 00:04:31.069 --> 00:04:33.670 you're talking on a private intercom, but you 00:04:33.670 --> 00:04:36.689 don't realize the building's PA system has an 00:04:36.689 --> 00:04:39.350 automatic delay spooling in the basement. Yes, 00:04:39.430 --> 00:04:41.490 exactly. The words were already in the pipes 00:04:41.490 --> 00:04:43.470 before he even finished the sentence. Because 00:04:43.470 --> 00:04:45.449 the rebroadcasters were already rolling their 00:04:45.449 --> 00:04:47.589 tape. Right. Right. They rolled early just to 00:04:47.589 --> 00:04:49.649 make sure their audio levels were locked in for 00:04:49.649 --> 00:04:51.990 the actual official transmission. OK, so the 00:04:51.990 --> 00:04:54.230 mic was hot, the magnetic tape was rolling in 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:57.550 major newsrooms everywhere. Precisely. Now, to 00:04:57.550 --> 00:05:00.589 be clear, The audio wasn't broadcast live to 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:02.850 the public right in that exact second. It was 00:05:02.850 --> 00:05:05.110 just sitting on the reels at these various networks. 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:08.649 Yeah. Which honestly leads to a detail in the 00:05:08.649 --> 00:05:10.870 source material that completely blew my mind. 00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:13.589 It's so counterintuitive to how the media works 00:05:13.589 --> 00:05:15.550 today. You're talking about the embargo. Yes. 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:19.019 You would think that a leaked tape of the President 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:21.339 of the United States joking about thermonuclear 00:05:21.339 --> 00:05:24.819 war would be like the holy grail for networks 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:28.139 like CBS News or CNN. Oh, a career -making scoop. 00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:31.399 Yeah. But they recorded it, they had the tape, 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:34.079 and they actively buried it. Wait, the media 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:36.839 actually agreed to hide a presidential flub from 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:39.560 the public? Yeah, they did. And what's fascinating 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:41.420 here is that there was an established precedent 00:05:41.420 --> 00:05:44.100 for this. Really? Yeah, very strict gentleman's 00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:46.100 agreement that drove that decision. We actually 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:50.959 have to rewind two years to October 1982 to understand 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:53.199 why the media held back. OK, what happened in 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:55.819 82? Well, President Reagan had made another hot 00:05:55.819 --> 00:05:58.740 mic gaffe. Oh, so he had a history of this. Definitely. 00:05:58.990 --> 00:06:01.370 In this instance, he was preparing to announce 00:06:01.370 --> 00:06:04.029 the cancellation of Poland's most favored nation 00:06:04.029 --> 00:06:06.490 status. OK, and we should probably pause real 00:06:06.490 --> 00:06:08.470 quick to clarify why that was such a big deal. 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:11.449 Good point. Revoking that status. That was a 00:06:11.449 --> 00:06:14.230 massive economic sanction. It was retaliation 00:06:14.230 --> 00:06:16.810 because the Polish military government was suppressing 00:06:16.810 --> 00:06:19.089 the trade union. Solidarity. Right. It was a 00:06:19.089 --> 00:06:22.310 highly sensitive geopolitical maneuver. The Cold 00:06:22.310 --> 00:06:25.370 War dynamics were very delicate. Yeah, very tense. 00:06:25.529 --> 00:06:28.680 And on an open mic. Before that, 1982 address, 00:06:29.339 --> 00:06:31.399 Reagan referred to the Polish military government 00:06:31.399 --> 00:06:35.540 as, quote, a bunch of no good lousy bums. Yikes. 00:06:35.899 --> 00:06:38.480 Which is incredibly volatile rhetoric to leak 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:40.500 during an international crisis. Oh, absolutely. 00:06:40.779 --> 00:06:42.879 And that one actually did get out. ABC and NBC 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:45.560 News aired it. OK, so the networks ran with it 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:48.379 then. They did. But the fallout from that leak 00:06:48.379 --> 00:06:50.939 was so severe that the White House Correspondents 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:53.759 Association actually came together and instituted 00:06:53.759 --> 00:06:56.480 a formal embargo. Wow. They basically policed 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.459 themselves. Exactly. They explicitly agreed collectively 00:06:59.459 --> 00:07:02.740 not to publish unprepared, off -the -record presidential 00:07:02.740 --> 00:07:05.540 remarks moving forward. They decided that a pre 00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:08.480 -speech sound check just wasn't fair game for 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:11.660 public consumption. So CBS and CNN in 1984, they 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:13.459 were just following the rules of the club. They 00:07:13.459 --> 00:07:15.660 had the bomb joke on tape, but they kept it in 00:07:15.660 --> 00:07:19.579 the vault. Yes, but, as we know, an embargo only 00:07:19.579 --> 00:07:22.500 works if every single person honors it. And in 00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:24.879 a competitive journalism market, you know, secrets 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:29.079 are currency. Exactly. So by August 13th, just 00:07:29.079 --> 00:07:31.079 two days after the sound check, the quotation 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:34.360 was published. Wrote the rule. Outlets like Gannett, 00:07:34.699 --> 00:07:37.339 they decided break ranks and print it. OK, so 00:07:37.339 --> 00:07:39.220 once it's in print, the White House obviously 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:41.519 has to address it. They do. And the reaction 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:43.860 from Larry Speaks is the White House press secretary 00:07:43.860 --> 00:07:46.100 at the time. When he was asked about the Gannett 00:07:46.100 --> 00:07:49.779 report that same day, his response was incredibly 00:07:49.779 --> 00:07:52.160 blunt. What did he say? He was very defensive. 00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:55.279 He just told reporters, quote, I don't talk about 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:57.639 off the record stuff. And he flatly declined 00:07:57.639 --> 00:07:59.800 to comment any further. I mean, a no comment 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:02.000 doesn't exactly put the genie back in the bottle, 00:08:02.220 --> 00:08:04.720 does it? Not at all. Because once the text is 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.399 published domestically, it instantly crosses 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.779 the Iron Curtain. Instantly. And the timeline 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.199 of how the Soviets reacted to this, it is just 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.319 a master class in strategic posturing. It really 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:18.180 is. Yeah. So on August 13th, the day the quote 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:21.120 first hits the wires, the deputy minister of 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:23.540 Soviet foreign affairs, a guy named Valentin 00:08:23.540 --> 00:08:26.620 Kamenev, is asked about it. OK. His initial reaction 00:08:26.620 --> 00:08:29.980 is totally muted. He simply says, I have nothing 00:08:29.980 --> 00:08:33.340 to say. Interesting. Yeah, it's dismissive, almost 00:08:33.340 --> 00:08:35.679 as if they're still processing the translation, 00:08:35.740 --> 00:08:38.600 trying to figure out the context. But then, 24 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:40.980 hours later, the whole narrative explodes. Oh, 00:08:41.019 --> 00:08:44.659 completely. By August 14th, the official Soviet 00:08:44.659 --> 00:08:47.259 government and all their major state mouthpieces 00:08:47.259 --> 00:08:50.899 agencies like Pravda, Izvestia, TSS, they come 00:08:50.899 --> 00:08:53.100 out swinging. Right, they go on full offense. 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:56.980 They denounce Reagan's comments as, quote, unprecedentedly 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:00.250 hostile. Yeah. They frame the joke as undeniable 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:02.929 proof that the United States is completely insincere 00:09:02.929 --> 00:09:05.710 about trying to improve relations, and they officially 00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:08.070 label it an abuse of the office of the president. 00:09:08.210 --> 00:09:10.879 Which is a huge escalation from I have nothing 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:13.700 to say. Right. And suddenly, U .S. officials 00:09:13.700 --> 00:09:16.879 are scrambling to mollify their Cold War adversaries, 00:09:17.159 --> 00:09:19.740 like, insisting over and over that this didn't 00:09:19.740 --> 00:09:22.460 reflect actual military intentions. It's like, 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:25.440 it's like accidentally texting trash talk to 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.539 the exact person you're talking about. That's 00:09:27.539 --> 00:09:30.659 the worst feeling. Right. But instead of just, 00:09:30.659 --> 00:09:34.100 you know, social awkwardness, it's global nuclear 00:09:34.100 --> 00:09:36.139 tension. Yeah, the stakes are just a little bit 00:09:36.139 --> 00:09:38.259 higher. Just a bit. But wait, I have to ask, 00:09:38.679 --> 00:09:41.419 were the Soviets genuinely terrified that bombers 00:09:41.419 --> 00:09:43.899 were on the way or were they just playing politics? 00:09:44.500 --> 00:09:47.179 Well, according to the source material, and we 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:49.059 are just looking impartially at the historical 00:09:49.059 --> 00:09:52.840 consensus here, Western diplomats at the time 00:09:52.840 --> 00:09:55.340 broadly viewed the Soviet response as, quote, 00:09:55.740 --> 00:09:58.860 over the top. So they were faking it. The consensus 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:02.019 was that Moscow was purposely amplifying the 00:10:02.019 --> 00:10:05.080 danger of the gaffe to gain leverage in nuclear 00:10:05.080 --> 00:10:08.419 arms negotiations. Ah, okay. Because if you can 00:10:08.419 --> 00:10:10.419 convince the world that your opponent is a loose 00:10:10.419 --> 00:10:13.159 cannon, you gain the upper hand. Exactly. You 00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:15.600 force the other side to make concessions just 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.259 to prove their peaceful intent. Wow. So it's 00:10:18.259 --> 00:10:20.759 turning a slav the tongue into literal diplomatic 00:10:20.759 --> 00:10:23.730 currency. Yes. And there's a brilliant retrospective 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:26.029 quote in the source from a Russian journalist, 00:10:26.490 --> 00:10:28.809 Mikhail Rostovsky, in 2003. What did he say? 00:10:29.090 --> 00:10:31.490 Looking back at the incident, he noted that Soviet 00:10:31.490 --> 00:10:34.129 propaganda, and this is translated, squeezed 00:10:34.129 --> 00:10:36.490 the maximum possible out of this joke of the 00:10:36.490 --> 00:10:38.929 state leader. Squeezed the maximum possible. 00:10:38.970 --> 00:10:41.230 That's so telling. Right. They knew it was a 00:10:41.230 --> 00:10:43.970 joke. Oh. But in the chess match of the Cold 00:10:43.970 --> 00:10:47.230 War, a blunder by your opponent is a piece you 00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:50.879 immediately capitalize on. Man. But, you know, 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:52.899 words have a way of escaping the control of the 00:10:52.899 --> 00:10:54.879 people trying to leverage them. They absolutely 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.740 do. Because the situation doesn't just stay neatly 00:10:57.740 --> 00:11:00.580 contained in the editorial pages of Pravda, right? 00:11:01.019 --> 00:11:05.159 It bleeds into the actual physical military command 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.419 structures. And this is where the narrative shifts 00:11:07.419 --> 00:11:10.320 from just a PR headache to a tangible global 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.480 security incident. Yeah, this part is crazy. 00:11:12.820 --> 00:11:15.860 By August 14th, the outrage is front page news 00:11:15.860 --> 00:11:17.919 globally. And then the very next day, August 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:21.220 15th, U .S. and Japanese intelligence intercept 00:11:21.220 --> 00:11:24.379 a terrifying coded message. And this message 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:26.700 doesn't come from a newspaper editor. No. It 00:11:26.700 --> 00:11:29.100 comes from Vladivostok, which is a major city 00:11:29.100 --> 00:11:31.320 in the Russian Far East, and it's the headquarters 00:11:31.320 --> 00:11:34.820 of the Soviet Pacific Fleet. Right. And the intercepted 00:11:34.820 --> 00:11:38.399 text stated, in part, quote, We now embark on 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:41.159 military action against the U .S. forces. I mean, 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:44.539 let that sink in. We now embark on military action. 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:47.860 Yeah. That is not diplomatic posturing in a newspaper. 00:11:48.019 --> 00:11:51.120 That is an operational attack order. It is. Here's 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.830 where it gets really interesting though. How 00:11:53.830 --> 00:11:57.230 does a joke in a California sound studio translate 00:11:57.230 --> 00:12:00.850 to an attack order in Vladivostok? Was Moscow 00:12:00.850 --> 00:12:03.330 actually initiating a coordinated strike, or 00:12:03.330 --> 00:12:05.590 was this just a massive miscommunication within 00:12:05.590 --> 00:12:07.830 their own ranks? Well, this raises an important 00:12:07.830 --> 00:12:10.230 question about command structures. The reality 00:12:10.230 --> 00:12:12.970 highlights the terrifying fragility of localized 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.909 military networks, what historians often call 00:12:15.909 --> 00:12:18.750 failed deadly systems. Failed deadly. That sounds 00:12:18.750 --> 00:12:21.370 awful. It is. According to the National Security 00:12:21.370 --> 00:12:23.519 Agency, who later detailed these events to U 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.059 .S. Representative Michael D. Barnes, the Kremlin 00:12:26.059 --> 00:12:28.860 did not issue this order. Okay, so who did? The 00:12:28.860 --> 00:12:31.000 NSA traced the message to what they described 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.899 as a, quote, wayward operator in the Soviet Far 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:37.009 Eastern Command. A wayward operator. So essentially 00:12:37.009 --> 00:12:40.090 one individual with access to the communication 00:12:40.090 --> 00:12:43.250 console hears the global news about Reagan's 00:12:43.250 --> 00:12:46.610 bombing comment, panics, and unilaterally sends 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:49.330 out an elevated alert to the fleet. That appears 00:12:49.330 --> 00:12:52.210 to be exactly the case. Wow. And the confusion 00:12:52.210 --> 00:12:54.809 it caused within the Soviet military was immediate. 00:12:55.870 --> 00:12:57.690 Soviet naval vessels that were operating out 00:12:57.690 --> 00:13:00.490 in the North Pacific began desperately contacting 00:13:00.490 --> 00:13:02.799 Vladivostok. Right, because they're receiving 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.480 this extreme alert status, but they have absolutely 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.419 no corroborating orders from Moscow? Exactly. 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:11.299 No operational context whatsoever. I can only 00:13:11.299 --> 00:13:14.059 imagine being a Soviet submarine captain. Right. 00:13:14.419 --> 00:13:16.519 You suddenly receive a flash message that a war 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:19.039 has started against U .S. forces, all because 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.559 of an American radio broadcast you probably barely 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:23.909 have the context for. It's nightmare fuel. And 00:13:23.909 --> 00:13:26.169 because U .S. and Japanese intelligence intercepted 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:28.710 that same message, the alert state for American 00:13:28.710 --> 00:13:31.169 forces in the region was instantly elevated too. 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:33.710 So we were suddenly in a standoff. We were. But 00:13:33.710 --> 00:13:35.690 the saving grace here lies in the mechanical 00:13:35.690 --> 00:13:38.309 verification process of U .S. intelligence. What 00:13:38.309 --> 00:13:40.730 do you mean? Well, they didn't just react blindly 00:13:40.730 --> 00:13:43.549 to the intercepted text. They immediately cross 00:13:43.549 --> 00:13:46.039 -referenced the message. with physical reality. 00:13:46.379 --> 00:13:48.340 Right. Because an attack order is just words 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:50.779 until the hardware actually moves. Precisely. 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:52.960 So U .S. intelligence would be scrambling to 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.120 look for physical corroboration, like checking 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.679 satellite imaging for missile silo doors open, 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:00.960 monitoring radar for bomber squadrons scrambling, 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:03.580 looking for spikes in communication frequencies. 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:06.519 Exactly. And they found absolutely nothing. Wow. 00:14:06.820 --> 00:14:10.779 There was a complete absence of actual Soviet 00:14:10.779 --> 00:14:14.460 attack preparations. And because the U .S. military 00:14:14.460 --> 00:14:16.980 relied on that physical verification and they 00:14:16.980 --> 00:14:19.480 chose not to overreact, they gave the Soviet 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:22.120 high command the crucial time needed to realize 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:24.240 what was happening internally. To rein in their 00:14:24.240 --> 00:14:27.460 own guy. Right. The rogue alert status promulgated 00:14:27.460 --> 00:14:30.080 by Vladivostok was canceled within 30 minutes. 00:14:30.240 --> 00:14:33.080 30 minutes? Yeah. Half an hour where the Pacific 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:35.440 Theater was technically on an elevated military 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:37.960 alert entirely because of a nine second joke 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:39.840 that was never even supposed to be broadcast. 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:43.620 It is a harrowing reminder. of how quickly human 00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:46.820 error can compound within complex military networks. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:49.899 That is just incredible. So, okay, the military 00:14:49.899 --> 00:14:52.639 eventually stands down. The naval vessels go 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.899 back to their standard patrols. Right. But back 00:14:55.899 --> 00:14:58.259 home in the United States, the political and 00:14:58.259 --> 00:15:00.759 cultural ripples are really only just beginning. 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:03.919 Oh, yeah. Because keep in mind the timing here. 00:15:04.139 --> 00:15:07.690 This is August of 1984. Right. We are roughly 00:15:07.690 --> 00:15:09.470 three months away from a presidential election. 00:15:09.690 --> 00:15:12.090 Right. And Reagan's opponent, Walter Mondale, 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:14.710 immediately recognizes the political vulnerability 00:15:14.710 --> 00:15:17.549 here. Of course. He goes on the offensive, making 00:15:17.549 --> 00:15:20.330 this very straightforward, common sense argument 00:15:20.330 --> 00:15:22.389 to the American public. Yeah. He stated, quote, 00:15:22.669 --> 00:15:25.049 a president has to be very, very careful with 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:27.389 his words. Which is hard to argue with. Definitely. 00:15:27.509 --> 00:15:29.769 Yeah. And initially, it looked like the attack 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:32.889 might work. Reagan's poll numbers actually took 00:15:32.889 --> 00:15:35.049 a momentary dip right after the gaffe hit the 00:15:35.049 --> 00:15:37.789 news cycle. I also love how it completely infiltrated 00:15:37.789 --> 00:15:40.610 pop culture. The source details how Jerry Harrison, 00:15:40.870 --> 00:15:43.389 who was the keyboardist and guitarist for the 00:15:43.389 --> 00:15:46.070 rock band Talking Heads, he actually got his 00:15:46.070 --> 00:15:47.970 hands on a copy of the leaked audio recording. 00:15:48.070 --> 00:15:50.769 Oh, this is such a great detail. He sampled Reagan's 00:15:50.769 --> 00:15:53.730 voice, looping the phrase five minutes, and he 00:15:53.730 --> 00:15:57.169 released a dance track in 1984 under the pseudonym 00:15:57.470 --> 00:16:01.090 Bonzo goes to Washington. Which is just a brilliant 00:16:01.090 --> 00:16:04.559 layered jab. Yeah. Referencing Reagan's old movie, 00:16:04.779 --> 00:16:07.759 Bedtime for Bonzo. The song literally became 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:10.379 the soundtrack to the geopolitical anxiety of 00:16:10.379 --> 00:16:13.919 the 1980s. The joke was just inescapable. So 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:16.559 what does this all mean for Reagan's legacy? 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:19.000 Because we know, historically, he went on to 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:21.580 win the 1984 election in a massive landslide. 00:16:21.679 --> 00:16:24.659 He did. So did this drop in poll numbers actually 00:16:24.659 --> 00:16:27.899 do any lasting damage or did the criticism somehow 00:16:27.899 --> 00:16:30.200 backfire on Mondale and the Democrats? Well, 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:32.490 if we connect this to the bigger picture. The 00:16:32.490 --> 00:16:35.250 historical analysis provided by Reagan biographer 00:16:35.250 --> 00:16:37.509 Craig Shirley is incredibly revealing. Okay, 00:16:37.610 --> 00:16:40.110 what's his take? Shirley argues that the leak 00:16:40.110 --> 00:16:43.190 and the intense media criticism that followed 00:16:43.190 --> 00:16:46.110 actually worked against the Democrats. Really? 00:16:46.529 --> 00:16:49.490 How so? Because Reagan's opponents hammered the 00:16:49.490 --> 00:16:52.549 issue so relentlessly. They tried to frame him 00:16:52.549 --> 00:16:55.570 as a dangerous warmonger over what was clearly 00:16:55.570 --> 00:16:59.379 a joke. Ah, I see. And by overplaying their hand, 00:16:59.779 --> 00:17:01.960 they ended up coming across to the American public 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:06.359 as hypersensitive and humorless. Wow. That is 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:08.839 the ultimate political paradox, right? It really 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:10.859 is. And again, we're just reporting the historical 00:17:10.859 --> 00:17:12.940 analysis from the source here. But it's wild 00:17:12.940 --> 00:17:15.140 that the people who accurately pointed out the 00:17:15.140 --> 00:17:18.019 objective danger of the joke ended up looking 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:19.960 worse in the eyes of the voters than the guy 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:22.220 who actually made the joke. Meanwhile, Reagan... 00:17:22.250 --> 00:17:24.609 who simply brushed the whole thing off and refused 00:17:24.609 --> 00:17:27.930 to over -apologize, appeared calm, cool, and 00:17:27.930 --> 00:17:30.250 collected. He projected confidence while his 00:17:30.250 --> 00:17:33.049 opponents projected panic. And as time has passed, 00:17:33.269 --> 00:17:35.329 the perception of the whole event has only continued 00:17:35.329 --> 00:17:38.009 to soften. Absolutely. It becomes a historical 00:17:38.009 --> 00:17:41.049 curiosity rather than a crisis. Right. The source 00:17:41.049 --> 00:17:43.269 mentions a retrospective piece written by journalist 00:17:43.269 --> 00:17:46.910 Andrew Glass in 2010 for Politico. Yeah, Glass 00:17:46.910 --> 00:17:48.990 made the point that most commentators ultimately 00:17:48.990 --> 00:17:52.170 dismissed the joke as, at worst, poor taste. 00:17:52.450 --> 00:17:55.390 Right. He argued that the quote only gained such 00:17:55.390 --> 00:17:58.029 massive traction because of the incredibly heightened 00:17:58.029 --> 00:18:01.130 Cold War tensions at that specific moment in 00:18:01.130 --> 00:18:04.630 84. Tensions that ironically dissolved significantly 00:18:04.630 --> 00:18:07.230 during Reagan's second term. It really is all 00:18:07.230 --> 00:18:09.609 about the context of the era. I mean, the Deseret 00:18:09.609 --> 00:18:13.829 News even published a list in 2011 ranking Ronald 00:18:13.829 --> 00:18:16.250 Reagan's top 10 quotes of all time. And where 00:18:16.250 --> 00:18:18.509 do they put this one? They put this hot mic gaff. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:21.480 at number six. That's amazing. They noted how 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:23.680 astounding it was that a leak of this magnitude 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:27.480 happened just 87 days before an election, and 00:18:27.480 --> 00:18:29.819 yet it didn't sink his campaign in the slightest. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:32.480 It perfectly highlights how public perception 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:34.839 and historical memory can shift dramatically 00:18:34.839 --> 00:18:37.900 over just a few decades. What starts as a potential 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:40.240 trigger for World War III eventually becomes 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:43.470 a top 10 listicle. It is an incredible, almost 00:18:43.470 --> 00:18:46.069 unbelievable sequence of events. It really is. 00:18:46.150 --> 00:18:48.289 I mean, think about it. Nine seconds of audio. 00:18:48.789 --> 00:18:50.829 A simple sound check joke meant to break the 00:18:50.829 --> 00:18:53.230 ice with a few audio engineers. Yeah. But because 00:18:53.230 --> 00:18:55.950 of the mechanical reality of live broadcast pipes, 00:18:56.650 --> 00:18:59.589 it slips through the network, breaks a journalistic 00:18:59.589 --> 00:19:02.980 gentleman's agreement, crosses the ocean, hands 00:19:02.980 --> 00:19:05.640 the Soviet press a diplomatic weapon. Triggers 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:08.819 a 30 minute military crisis in Vladivostok. Exactly. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:11.500 Becomes a billboard dance track and ultimately 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:13.839 bounces off the president's poll numbers without 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:16.559 leaving a scratch. It really maps out the entire 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:19.859 anatomy of a media firestorm, bridging the gap 00:19:19.859 --> 00:19:22.039 between domestic journalism and international 00:19:22.039 --> 00:19:24.349 security. And I want to connect this directly 00:19:24.349 --> 00:19:26.789 back to you listening right now. Because in our 00:19:26.789 --> 00:19:29.210 modern reality, we all carry smartphones. Everywhere 00:19:29.210 --> 00:19:31.750 we go. Right. Hot microphones and rolling cameras 00:19:31.750 --> 00:19:34.309 are absolutely everywhere. We essentially live 00:19:34.309 --> 00:19:36.769 our lives on an automatic delay. We really do. 00:19:37.089 --> 00:19:39.569 This deep dive proves that the context of our 00:19:39.569 --> 00:19:42.410 words matters immensely. And once something is 00:19:42.410 --> 00:19:44.650 recorded and leaves your immediate control, you 00:19:44.650 --> 00:19:47.549 completely lose the ability to dictate how it 00:19:47.549 --> 00:19:50.109 is interpreted, how it's remixed, or how it's 00:19:50.109 --> 00:19:52.910 weaponized by others. That is the und - undeniable, 00:19:53.289 --> 00:19:56.349 enduring power of recorded audio. But I want 00:19:56.349 --> 00:19:59.049 to leave you with one final thought to mull over, 00:19:59.289 --> 00:20:01.529 building on the mechanics of how this audio leaked 00:20:01.529 --> 00:20:05.630 in the first place. We spent a lot of time discussing 00:20:05.630 --> 00:20:08.609 the international fallout, right? The Soviet 00:20:08.609 --> 00:20:12.509 outrage, the military alert in the Pacific. But 00:20:12.509 --> 00:20:15.799 consider the role of the domestic media. When 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:18.539 the White House Correspondence Association made 00:20:18.539 --> 00:20:21.920 that gentleman's agreement back in 1982 to suppress 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:24.220 Reagan's comments. Right, the lousy bum's comment. 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:28.140 Exactly. When they did that, they actively, consciously 00:20:28.140 --> 00:20:30.880 chose to hide presidential rhetoric from the 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.539 public. Wow, yeah. It begs a fascinating question 00:20:33.539 --> 00:20:36.000 about history. How much off -the -record audio 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:38.339 from world leaders is currently sitting hidden 00:20:38.339 --> 00:20:41.319 in media vaults? And what happens to our understanding 00:20:41.319 --> 00:20:43.279 of historical truth when journalists, rather 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.210 than the public, decide what we are and aren't 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:48.869 allowed to hear. That is a great point. Suddenly 00:20:48.869 --> 00:20:51.190 that safely sealed room doesn't feel so secure 00:20:51.190 --> 00:20:51.769 after all.