“This is now on track,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday, “to be the largest airlift in U.S. history.” On the process of bringing U.S. citizens, Afghan partners, and allies out, she continued, “I would not say that is anything but a success.”

Psaki was very careful not to use the adjective “all” in identifying the categories of people being evacuated from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. But, perhaps due to a Generation Xer’s insufficient grounding in history, she was unwise in using the word “airlift.”