The Equatorial Kundu story line and its atrocities are based on several real life African civil wars, notably Rwanda (1990-1994), Sierra Leone (1991-2002) and Mozambique (1977-1992).
At one point, President Bartlett asks after the Jonathan Edwards Bible in Northampton, Massachusetts. While Jonathan Edwards preached in Northampton, his Bible is now housed at Yale University. The Bible shown in the show is a large illuminated manuscript in multiple languages, but the real Bible is much smaller. It is known as "the blank Bible" because it's composed of a copy of the King James Bible sliced to individual pages and then rebound between the pages of a blank notebook so that extensive notes could be made.
Kuhndu was first mentioned in "In This White House (2000)" when the president of Kuhndu visited to discuss AIDS medication with the drug companies. In this episode Bartlet (Martin Sheen) states that when he got his briefing memo he had to reach for an atlas. So Kuhndu may be a different country from the Republic of Kuhndu.
In the previous episode 'The Long Goodbye" CJ's father says that it's February. Inauguration takes place in January.
Donna (Janel Moloney) says "I'm not Gidget," referring to the boy-crazy teenager who was popular 1957-72 (Gidget (1965)), so an oddly dated reference for her (born 1974) to make.