Bush Vows to Respond and Calls for Calm

President Bush vowed Tuesday night that Americans will respond with a “quiet, unyielding anger” to the nation’s most deadly day of terrorism, and he pledged to retaliate against not just the masterminds of the attacks but also the foreign nations that harbor them.

“A great people has been moved to defend a great nation,” the president said in a brief address from the Oval Office. “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.

“These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”

The four-minute speech was his first televised address to the nation from the Oval Office.

The president did not point fingers at whoever might be responsible for the series of hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

He referred to the attacks as “acts of mass murder” but stopped short of labeling them as “acts of war,” as others--including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)--did Tuesday.

Rather, the president delivered a message of calm and reassurance.

“The functions of our government continue without interruption,” he said. “ . . . Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.”

He also praised the efforts of rescue workers and those who came forward to help the injured or to give blood.

“Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America,” he said. Bush disclosed little about how the government would respond to the attacks.

“The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts,” he said. “I’ve directed the full resources [of the government] to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”

White House aides said the president’s speech was drafted by his senior counselor, Karen Hughes, and speech writer Mike Gerson as Bush flew back from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

He reviewed it in his study next to the Oval Office after returning to the White House about 7 p.m.

The chief executive wanted to return to Washington, D.C., as quickly as possible, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said, because “his return sends a powerful message.”

Bush spoke to Vice President Dick Cheney throughout the day and kept an open line to the vice president from Air Force One. Cheney remained in the White House command center while the Secret Service reassessed the security threat. The president returned to the capital early Tuesday evening after a long and circuitous trip from an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., where his day began with a classroom visit. There he learned of the attacks.

Bush condemned the terrorist acts in brief comments to reporters and quickly left for Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Because of the uncertainty of the situation, his security team had him flown first to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to the Offutt base in Omaha, Neb.

But Bush and his top aides thought it was essential that he return to Washington to speak directly to the nation.

“This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace,” the president said in closing. “America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.”