vacation, but four days after it happened, president reagan was back in washington and delivering this sternly worded address to the nation. he said what the soviets had done was monstrous. but honestly, looking back at that time, i have to tell you that sternly worded address was basically it in terms of the u.s. response. the presidential response to that tragedy. korean airlines flight 007 had departed from the united states. it had departed from new york city. it had stopped to refuel in anchorage. it was carrying dozens of americans including a serving u.s. congressman named larry mcdonald. president reagan addressed the nation after that flight crashed and did use very strong language, but then he warned his advisers against any overreaction to what happened. he told a national security meeting, we've got to protect against overreaction. vengeance is not the name of the game. so it was a speech, but that was sort of it. this was the middle of the cold war. and in truth, there was not much president reagan or anybody else