Remembering September 11

Miller Center resources to understand the terror attacks and their aftermath

Photo: derived from "Fireball erupting in the South Tower," © Robert J. Fisch, 2001

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Firetruck in New York on September 11, 2001

September 12, 2001

‘Terrorism can touch the soul of American society’

The Miller Center's Sidney Milkis was scheduled to give a presentation on September 12, 2001. With the encouragement of Ken Thompson, the Center's former director, he proceeded with the talk and focused his remarks on the previous day's attacks

Miller Center events

Zelikow on 9/11

Philip Zelikow was the Center's director when the attacks occurred; he went on to lead the 9/11 Commission before returning to Grounds

The roots of September 11

How and why 9/11 happened

The aftermath

How America responded to the attacks

Islam and America

The 9/11 attacks deeply affected an already fraught relationship between the United States, Muslim nations, and Islam itself

Presidential oral history: Memories of 9/11

‘The first concern was not to scare the kids’

Harriet Miers was with President Bush at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center

‘You're authorized to go to DEFCON 3’

Ari Fleischer, the Bush administration press secretary, recalled the president's decisions aboard Air Force One on the day of the attacks

‘It transformed the country’

Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) was the minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 11

‘There were two levels of strategic failure’

Although he wasn't a member of the administration on 9/11, Robert Gates had to deal with the aftermath when he became Secretary of Defense in 2006

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UVA remembers 9/11

UVA Today highlights stories that show how September 11 intersects with the University of Virginia and the extended University community

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October 1, 2020

The presidency and endless war

President Biden has announced that U.S. troops will withdraw completely from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. The 2020 William and Carol Stevenson Conference looked at the roots, management, and direction of America's so-called “endless wars.” Panelists considered the political, legal, military, cultural, and governance implications of remaining engaged in these indefinite conflicts.

A September 11 timeline

UVA undergraduate and Miller Center intern Katherine Huiskes summarizes the events of 9/11

Background: The September 11 attacks

Presidential oratory

George W. Bush: September 11, 2001

President Bush addressed the nation on the night of the attacks in a defining moment of his presidency

George W. Bush: September 22, 2001

Eleven days after the attacks, President Bush informed the American people about the nation's response

George W. Bush: March 19, 2008

As the end of his presidency neared, President Bush assessed the "war on terror"

Barack Obama: May 1, 2011

President Obama told the world that U.S. forces had killed Osama Bin Laden

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May 9, 2012

‘Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden’

Only a week before the 9/11 attacks, Peter Bergen turned in the manuscript of Holy War, Inc., the story of Osama Bin Laden and his declaration of war on America. Just more than a decade later, Bergen visited the Miller Center to discuss Manhunt, in which he picks up the thread with a taut account of the pursuit and eventual killing of the terrorist.