They Were Young Once, Too: Neera Tanden

Even in high school, Joe Biden's OMB pick knew the right role models

On February 9, 1968, Secretary of State Dean Rusk blew up at reporters. The Tet Offensive had just kicked off and the press wanted was bent on giving the Johnson administration a hard time, about the whole losing-a-brutal-occupation thing.

One reporter asked if Rusk, who’d begun service under Kennedy years before, was “satisfied” with the intelligence on the ground in Vietnam.

“One is never satisfied,” he quipped. “But the point is, I don’t see why you have to start from the dissatisfaction. There gets to be a point where the question is, whose side are you on?”

“You’re not suggesting…” the reporter began.

“During World War II there was never a time when you couldn’t find a reason to bitch at your allies or at intelligence or the commander of the adjoining unit or the quartermaster who wasn’t giving you your toilet seat at the right time,” Rusk went on. “But what do you talk about? Do you talk about how to win this thing? Or do you throw this thing in and say everything is lost?”

Rusk was…