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Dr. Nancy McNally is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing, played by Anna...

Dr. Nancy McNally is a fictional character on the television series The West Wing, played by Anna Deavere Smith. She is the National Security Advisor to President Josiah Bartlet. McNally first appears in the second season premiere, which saw assassins target the president. She advises Vice President John Hoynes and White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the possibility of Iraqi involvement, and recommends the deployment of soldiers into Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. McNally becomes one of the President's three key advisors on foreign policy and military matters, the other two being Leo McGarry and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Percy Fitzwallace. She helps deal with situations in Haiti, Qumar, Equatorial Kundu, Iran, and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. After the election of Matthew Santos, Santos and Josh Lyman privately discuss asking McNally to serve as Secretary of State, but that position instead goes to Santos's opponent in the election, Arnold Vinick. At the conclusion of the show, McNally is poised to be named Ambassador to the United Nations.