Seventh in a series

Tuesday, September 18

President Bush and Vice President Cheney marked the seventh day since the terrorist attacks with a moment of silence on the White House lawn, then met with the National Security Council. After the president began the meeting, CIA Director George J. Tenet told the group that the agency was sending an eight-man team to Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance. "We are launching our plan," he said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reported that military planning was proceeding, now that Bush had signed off on an option that included cruise missiles, manned bombers and U.S. forces on the ground.

Keeping options open is important but not the primary focus, Bush told Rumsfeld. "The top priority is shaking [Osama] bin Laden's tree."

With preparations underway to go to war, Bush had begun to think of how he would explain -- both to the country and the world -- what he planned to do. He wanted to announce his plans before a joint session of Congress. But before he set a date for his appearance, he wanted to feel comfortable with the tone and the language of what he was going to say -- no presidential speech in recent history would be more important to national morale or more scrutinized than this one.

Planning for the speech had begun Sunday afternoon when Bush returned from Camp David. Meeting with members of his communications team, Bush told them his initial thoughts, and White House counselor Karen P. Hughes wrote them out on a pad: "America is united and strong. . . . Praise Congress. . . . By uniting in capital [Washington], we've helped unite nation. . . . Single out, we're Americans now, not Republicans or Democrats. . . . Here's what we need to do. . . . The world has rallied."

There had been some striking images since Sept. 11 -- groups of citizens in silent vigils, carrying candles and mourning the victims of the terrorist attacks, for example -- and Hughes said the speech should evoke them. The speech should describe what the threat was, and why. Other themes she noted included: "Call to action, we will rout them out. . . . Define mission. . . . War is not against one person or one group, it's against terrorism."

It was obvious that Sunday that the president had decided to launch military strikes, but he made no mention of them to his communications team. Hughes asked what they should say about military action.

"If we've done something, describe what we've done," Bush replied. "If not, our message to the military: Be prepared." He also said the speech should set expectations for the American people about the war on terrorism -- that it would be "lengthy."

The next day, Monday, Bush was more urgent, telling Hughes he wanted to see a draft of the speech by that night. She knew how the speechwriters liked to operate, and said it would be difficult if not impossible to produce such an important speech that quickly.

"I want it by 7," Bush said.

Hughes relayed the president's instructions to chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. His reaction was the same: difficult if not impossible. "I already tried that," Hughes said.

Gerson worked for a few minutes in his office in the basement of the West Wing, then walked over to Room 271 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where he joined fellow speechwriters Matthew Scully and John McConnell.

While Gerson was the best known of the president's speechwriters, the three often combined to write the most important speeches. After working together through the 2000 presidential campaign, they had developed an interesting arrangement, with McConnell at the computer keyboard and Gerson and Scully grouped around the desk. They fed lines to one another, edited each other as they wrote and together built a speech sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase.

They had no good outline but did have the benefit of work that had been done by John Gibson, a speechwriter on the NSC staff, that provided background on al Qaeda and the Taliban. Armed with that information, one suggested the following sentence: "We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety." Someone else added the next sentence: "We have seen their kind before."

They wrestled with how to define the Taliban's place in the history of corrupted ideologies, what they wanted to call "discarded lies." The "ash heap of history" was a cliché. Someone suggested the phrase "unmarked grave," then someone suggested putting the phrases together. The paragraph concluded with, "And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends, in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."

Facing Bush's deadline, they worked almost without pause and by Monday evening they had produced the first draft.

In the Oval Office, Bush went over the speech with his speechwriters and counselor Karen P. Hughes. She felt an early draft did not evoke the threat of terrorism. (By Tina Hager - The White House)

After the NSC meeting Tuesday morning, Bush met with Hughes and the speechwriting team. He told them he was not satisfied with what they had given him, particularly the conclusion. It was too elevated, too esoteric for what he wanted to say. What he wanted, Bush told his team, was a pledge to the American people.

The speechwriters had rarely seen Bush so passionate. "This is what my presidency is about," Bush said repeatedly, referring to his decisions and plans responding to Sept. 11. He said he wanted the conclusion of the speech to be emphatic and personal. He didn't want to paint big pictures. He wanted simple, direct statements that would say: This is my mission, my purpose; this is the nation's purpose.

He told his team he wanted to convey that the war on terrorism would consume him throughout his presidency, and that he was making a personal commitment to the American people to see it through, however long it might take.

In an interview in December, Bush explained why he wanted the speech to end with such a pledge. "I understand the job of the president," he said. "And the job of the president is to lead a nation in a long and difficult struggle, and this is going to be a very long and difficult struggle."

Bush originally envisioned the speech as a central part of his effort to educate the American people about the unconventional war he was beginning to launch. But as the week went on, the speech also became the rhetorical vehicle to describe, at least in veiled language, the scope of a total war on terrorism using the military, the CIA, financial pressure and diplomacy.

During the Tuesday morning meeting with the speechwriting team, Rice brought in the wording of an ultimatum to the Taliban that had been drafted by the State Department. Bush had instructed Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to issue the ultimatum the day before, but Powell had asked for more time.

When Bush saw what the State Department had produced, he began to think it made more sense to include the ultimatum in his speech, rather than to have it issued by the State Department. At a minimum, it would produce a headline in a speech that otherwise would be mostly descriptive. More than that, Bush concluded, an ultimatum to the Taliban would carry more weight if it came directly from the president of the United States with the rest of the world watching.

As Bush was working through his problems with the initial draft of his speech, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. reminded him he was under no rush to get it done. Bush should not try to schedule the speech until he was totally comfortable with what it said, Card said, despite pressure from Congress to set a firm date.

Bush later explained: "I wanted to make sure that we did it right before I committed to giving a speech. This is one of the few speeches where the timing of the speech was loose. In other words, I wasn't going to get up there in front of the nation until I was certain that we were ready to go."

Gerson, McConnell and Scully went back to work.

6:30 p.m. Bush Reassures the French, Takes a Hard Line on Taliban

Bush met with French President Jacques Chirac, his first meeting with a foreign head of state since the attacks. The visit had been scheduled long before Sept. 11, and Chirac's advisers assumed that Bush might want to postpone it because of the crisis. But the president told Chirac in a telephone call that he thought it would be helpful to go ahead.

Chirac had given the United States total support in the days after the attacks, but was anxious to see and hear from Bush firsthand what the administration was thinking. Chirac's advisers were struck by the president's sense of confidence. Bush did most of the talking on the American side, surprising the French by speaking without notes and allaying their concerns that the United States might act precipitously.

Chirac stressed the importance of building an international coalition. This should not be one country against the rest of the world, he said, but all civilized countries against a group of terrorists. Bush said the United States had no interest in going it alone, although in the early days of the crisis he told his advisers he would do so, if necessary.

Two days earlier Bush had described the war as a "crusade," and Chirac cautioned Bush not to fall into the trap bin Laden hoped to set, by making the conflict between Christianity and the Muslim world. The president, who had been gently upbraided by his advisers over the "crusade" comment, said he agreed completely.

At dinner, the two presidents broached the subject of Iraq, although they did not talk specifically about military action against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Chirac explained how dangerous the situation there was because of the Iraqis' ability to get around the United Nations embargo. Getting inspectors back into Iraq was essential.

Bush and Chirac also discussed an ultimatum for the Taliban. What if the Taliban does not accept? Chirac asked. Then we will issue it again, Bush responded.

And if the Taliban fails to respond again?

"Then they will pay the price," Bush said.

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About 9:30 p.m., as Gerson pulled into his driveway in suburban Virginia, his cell phone rang. It was the president with some further thoughts about the speech. Bush rarely called at night with late edits, preferring to work in the morning. Gerson pulled out a copy of the speech and, sitting in his car in the driveway, went to work.

Bush wasn't sold on the draft but told Gerson they were heading in the right direction. For the next half-hour they went through the speech paragraph by paragraph, with two dozen or so proposed changes. Gerson took this as a good sign: Bush normally did not begin line-editing a speech until he was happy with the overall outline and structure.

Bush still did not like the conclusion, but he was thoroughly engaged by now. It was clear to Gerson that they were getting close.

Wednesday, September 19 Out of Many Contributions, The President's Speech Emerges

Meeting with the NSC in the White House Situation Room, Bush asked for assurances that U.S. officials had clearly insisted that the Taliban regime release two young American female aid workers who were being held hostage. Later he would include their release in the list of demands he gave the Taliban.

Bush also urged Powell and Rumsfeld to emphasize in their briefings that the international coalition would change with the requirements of the war effort -- that different countries would be asked for different contributions, that this would not be a single, grand, unchanging coalition.

Powell and Rice felt Bush's speech should allow states to change behavior on terrorism. (By Tina Hager - The White House)

Powell replied, "We won't demand from our coalition partners what they can't give, but states can't say they are anti-terror here and pro-terror at home."

That morning, Hughes asked Card and Rice if they thought Bush had decided the speech draft was in good enough shape for him to appear before Congress. Personally, Hughes thought it still needed a lot of work, but if the president was basically satisfied with the draft she did not want to criticize it, lest it undermine his confidence in the text.

Hughes thought the speech was not vivid or clear enough, and did not evoke the threat of terrorism in a way that would make it real to the American people. Rice agreed, and said she would send two of her senior staff members to work with Hughes to improve the language.

The president had a different problem with the latest draft -- he was still unhappy with the conclusion. Despite his impassioned statements throughout the week, he felt his speechwriters had not incorporated the directness and simplicity he was looking for.

"Is anybody listening?" he asked. Hughes did not think the speech would be ready that week.

In her second-floor office in the West Wing, Hughes went to work on the draft, trying to paint a more vivid picture of the Taliban and the regime's harsh treatment of the Afghan people. She also rewrote the section of the speech on tolerance that was designed to send a message of reassurance to Muslims that the enemy was terrorism, not Islam.

Speechwriters Gerson, Scully and McConnell kept going on the conclusion. From time to time that morning, Bush would call to ask: Where is the speech?

About 11:30 a.m., the speechwriters called Hughes to say they thought the conclusion was in shape and brought it over to her office. Together they went over the speech line by line before deciding they were ready to show it to Bush. About 1:15 p.m., they walked into the Oval Office.

"You're all smiling," Bush noted. "That's good."

Throughout the speechwriting process, various officials had been proposing changes in language.

The State Department was concerned about offending coalition partners, and in deference to Russia's willingness to support the war on terrorism, the phrase "imperial communism" gave way to "totalitarianism" as one of the murderous ideologies of the 20th century.

Powell also told Hughes he was concerned about a line in the text equating the Taliban to the Mafia. It will needlessly offend "the anti-'Soprano' crowd," he argued, a reference to the popular HBO series about a Mafia family. Hughes was insistent. It will work, she said, and the phrase stayed in.

Hughes had examined the scores of suggestions she had received from other officials and had made about three small changes in the text. As Bush began reading the speech aloud, he got to the first addition and said: "Are you just putting things in and out of the speech?" He got to another one. This is different, he said. Who put this in? Are you just willy-nilly adding things to this speech?

"No," Hughes replied. "I had to use my judgment. You were in a meeting."

Bush made a few suggestions as he read, but when he finished the draft he was pleased. "Great job," he told his advisers. "Let's go tell the Congress."

He wanted to speak before a joint session the next night, he told congressional leaders. Then, at 6:25 p.m., dressed casually in a nylon jogging jacket, Bush went to the White House theater and practiced the speech.

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At 7 p.m., Bush met with his war cabinet -- principals without any aides. Rice and Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill reported on efforts to block the terrorists' funding sources. Rumsfeld mentioned the speech and said it shouldn't single out bin Laden.

Naming the terrorist leader, Rumsfeld argued, risked elevating bin Laden and narrowing the base of support for the anti-terrorist campaign. Rumsfeld said it was important to stress the global nature of the threat and the response. Rice responded by saying the decision had been made to mention bin Laden once in the speech.

There was one other issue to resolve. More than any other language in the speech, Bush's advisers had debated the section warning states that supported terrorism. On the night of the attacks, the president had expressed what became known as the Bush Doctrine: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

In working over the new text, the president's advisers searched for some language that would clarify the doctrine. They were launching a global war on terrorism, but the initial military campaign would focus on al Qaeda in Afghanistan. What other states might they be targeting? What were the new rules against which to measure the behavior of other countries with a history of sponsoring terrorism?

Rice and Powell believed the language as written was too strident. They wanted to give countries the opportunity to break with the past. Issuing a blanket threat to all states that supported terrorism would give no consideration to countries that changed their behavior.

As the president's advisers debated the issue, they decided they should make a distinction between past and future behavior. By adding the words "continue to" to the sentence, they held out a carrot to other countries. Without the change, Powell thought, the United States would be declaring war on everybody.

Thursday, September 20 Setting the Tone For Future Presidents

The day of Bush's speech began with a new warning from Tenet. "We have threats of an imminent terrorist attack," he announced at a meeting of the National Security Council that morning. Intelligence showed that very senior members of al Qaeda, including key bin Laden lieutenants, were indicating there would be a big attack in the next couple of days. Tenet also updated the president on the movement of the first team of Americans going into Afghanistan: They will be in Uzbekistan by Friday, Tenet said, and in northern Afghanistan by Sunday. The campaign has begun, Powell said.

Cheney reiterated his basic message, that the goal should not simply be to combat terrorists but states supporting terrorism. The president replied that his speech would emphasize the war would be waged against more than just al Qaeda. Al Qaeda is the start, he said, and he would make demands of the Taliban, but the war will be broader.

Rumsfeld offered another note of caution. We should not say we will defeat terrorism per se, he said, but terrorism as a threat to our way of life. Rumsfeld worried about sounding overly ambitious, noting that there is no way to stop every small act of terrorism.

But Bush insisted he would not soft-pedal America's determination to win the war. We will defeat our enemies, we will set a tone for future presidents, he told his advisers. He added that his speech must reassure the American people while acknowledging that the country is not immune and could be attacked at any time.

"We would risk chaos and lack of clarity in our mission if we broaden at this stage," he said.

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Bush held two more practice sessions -- at 11:10 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. It was at these sessions that the speechwriters learned the identity of Bush's new director of homeland security: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, whose appointment the president was going to announce that night.

Cheney, who had been working on the issue of homeland defense for several months, had pushed Bush to announce the creation of the office in his speech. When Bush recruited Ridge, one of his closest friends among the Republican governors, the last piece of the speech fell into place.

During the afternoon, Hughes decided that Rumsfeld's concerns about mentioning bin Laden by name in the speech were worth raising one last time with the president. Bush asked her to call Cheney to see what he thought about it. Shortly after she had placed the call to the vice president's office, Bush called her back. Don't bother Cheney with the question, he said. He had thought about it again and decided it was essential to name bin Laden.

Cheney then called her back. She explained the issue and said the president had subsequently decided it was the right decision to target bin Laden by name. Cheney said he agreed.

In the Blue Room a few hours before his speech, Bush told Blair of his plans for the Taliban: "Full force of the U.S. military," and "bombers coming from all directions." (By Eric Draper - The White House)

When Bush finished rehearsing that afternoon, he was told that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his entourage, who were due for a meeting and dinner at the White House later, were running late. Did he want to practice the speech one more time? his aides asked. Bush said no, he was ready. Instead he took a short nap.

Blair had attended a midday New York City memorial service for British casualties in the attacks on the World Trade Center. From there, he was coming to Washington for a meeting and dinner with the president and then to watch the speech at the Capitol. Traffic gridlock and heightened security in New York put Blair badly behind schedule.

Blair welcomed the invitation to attend the speech, despite concerns at home about what one official called "the poodle factor" -- the fear that the prime minister might appear to have become an appendage of the U.S. president. Blair saw it as another chance to express his solidarity with Bush and, more important, to hear first-hand how U.S. planning had evolved.

When the British delegation arrived, Bush grabbed Blair and the two went off alone to the Blue Room for a 20-minute private conversation. There Bush laid out his plan, including the use of U.S. force in Afghanistan. "Full force of the U.S. military," the president recalled telling Blair, and "bombers coming from all directions."

The U.S. and British delegations then moved to the Old Family Dining Room in the White House residence. Bush was joined by Powell and Rice. Blair's group included his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell; chief spokesman Alastair Campbell; national security adviser David Manning; and Christopher Meyer, the ambassador to the United States.

Bush said it was clear from his private meeting with Blair that the two nations were on the same wavelength.

He told the group that after a vigorous debate within the administration, he had decided not to include Iraq in the first phase of the conflict. He said he did not want energy and attention needed for the campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban to be diverted.

Bush and Blair compared notes on their discussions with other world leaders. Blair mentioned that on the flight from Paris to New York he had spoken to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

"You spoke to Khatami?" Bush asked. Yes, Blair said, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was planning a trip to Iran the next week.

Bush said Straw should deliver a very strong message to the Iranians. Tell them that if they want proper relations with the West they have to give up their links to terrorism.

Bush seemed unhurried, despite the moment awaiting him on Capitol Hill. Campbell, who had been through Blair's biggest speeches, marveled that Bush appeared so relaxed. At one point, Blair suggested the president might want to take time for preparations. No, Bush said, I'm ready.

"I think it surprised him a little bit," Bush said later. ". . . You know, you've got to remember, every speech is now 'the speech of my life.' . . . I've had about six of those from some of my trusted advisers. So I'm immune to the 'speech of your life' speech."

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Bush and Blair spoke briefly to reporters, then went to the residence while Bush freshened up for the speech. The two men rode to the Capitol together and Blair joined first lady Laura Bush in the balcony.

Few presidential speeches in recent history had been more anticipated. More than 80 million Americans watched the speech on television. An exhibitionprofessional hockey game in Philadelphia was stopped when fans demanded to see Bush on the video screens overhead.

"Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom," Bush said as fighter jets circled over the Capitol. "Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done."

Bush then asked and answered the questions he had dictated to Hughes during their meeting the previous Sunday: Who attacked America? Why do they hate us? How will we fight and win this war? He described in general terms the steps he had ordered his national security advisers to take in their meeting Monday.

"We will direct every resource at our command," he said, "every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war, to the disruption and to the defeat of the global terror network."

He then described the unusual nature of the campaign to demonstrate that U.S. policy had undergone important changes. "Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes," he said. "Americans should not expect one battle but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success."

He urged Americans "to live your lives and hug your children" and asked for "your patience" for the long struggle ahead. He held up the police shield of George Howard, the Port Authority policeman who died at the World Trade Center, which was given to him the previous Friday in New York by Howard's mother.

Then Bush made the pledge he had worked so long with his speechwriters to perfect.

"I will not forget this wound to our country and those who inflicted it," he said. "I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."

The applause was thunderous."I don't know how these things go," the president said in the Dec. 20 interview. "You know, I'm in the middle of the whirlwind, as they say, in speeches." Afterward, he talked to advisers and family for a sense of how he had done.

"When I really realized the extent to which America wanted to be led was when they stopped the hockey game in Philadelphia," Bush recalled, voicing surprise at his own role. "It was unbelievable. And they wanted, they didn't want the game to go on. They wanted to hear what the commander in chief, the president of the United States, had to say during this moment."

Bush called his chief speechwriter, Gerson, who had watched the speech from home. Both Bush and Gerson remember the president's words: "I have never felt more comfortable in my life."

Staff researcher Jeff Himmelman contributed to this report.

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