Upon reading President Bush’s “Address to the Nation on the Terrorist Attacks” it is clear that this day in history changed the entire world forever. Through its language, the speech highlights the losses America suffered, the heroism of regular citizens and the bravery of the American people. Most prominent though, is the language the president uses to describe the events, and the way he spoke of endurance and retribution. The president’s speech came just twelve hours after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon. This address helps us to better understand the post-9/11 American culture and the way this event changed our lives as U.S. Citizens. It also helps us understand the way the 9/11 attacks sent our country, the countries affiliated with these attacks, and the rest of the world into the new, post-9/11 modern era.

The historical connections in this specific document tie this essay to the very changing nature of the entire world in response to the new, very real threat of terrorism on American soil. The entire document itself has become a relic to this historic event because it was written as the first direct response from the United States regarding the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The events in the speech directly connect historically because of the nature of the response. President Bush promised that the United States government would remain strong, and he vowed to retaliate against the people responsible for the attacks. The president’s vow is what led the United States into invading the Middle-East, and to the famous assassination of Osama Bin Laden a decade later. This is what gives this speech such dramatic historical relevance. What President Bush expresses in this writing is ultimately what lead to the evolution of American life to now combat the threat of mass terrorism within the states and abroad, including the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, one of which we continue to fight in to this day.

Important elements in this essay are the way in which the president uses language, because he shows great sorrow and pain in the way he speaks about what had transpired previously that day, acknowledging the losses suffered. However the most important element of his tone in this speech is his inherent strength despite the blow that was struck to our nation that day. His strength and his promises both to those responsible and to those who were lost are what shapes the next decade of American life. His words shared the same strength. In his speech he says “terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of the biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve” (533) .It is the way the president reassures the American people through his words that are stronger than our adversaries and that we will not only recover from the events and the staggering losses suffered, but we will rise above what we endured and make the world aware of our strength as a result. This promise and the diction the president used most greatly influenced this era of American history, and continues to shape the reading of this speech. 

Growing up in the time period immediately after 9/11 in a New York City suburb personalized, and thusly shaped the way the text felt. Being able to directly relate to the events gave more emphasis on the messages the president was saying, as all of these events (the attacks themselves, and what came as a response) had vast impacts on the community. Revisiting this speech and thusly that moment in history as a whole carried immense impact personally on the reading and interpretation of the text. Everything was made so real, and serves to offer an explanation for the way things became after experiencing these events firsthand. Growing up in a new york city suburb, the terrorist attacks had an immense impact on everyday life. Many people commuted to the city every day for work. A large number to the World Trade Center specifically. Many people in my hometown lost loved ones, friends, or neighbors. This shaped my personal experience and understanding of the attacks, because unlike many people, for me the attacks were felt firsthand. 

These events incited changes that sent a nation towards a future as a world power that could show its strength and resolve to overcome anything that may happen to it. Growing up and experiencing this on smaller more personal levels changed the way the President’s speech was read. It also serves to change the way the words in the speech resonate individually because our generation has grown and significantly changed as a result of the 9/11 attacks and life as we knew it changed forever. As Kimberly Gross writes in her ‘Confidence in Government and Emotional Responses to Terrorism After September 11, 2001. ”In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States undertook a number of sweeping policies as part of the fight against terrorism. Political leaders drew on support for the government in undertaking actions designed to prevent future terrorist attacks and assist victims.” (Gross, 108). The attacks shook the United States to its political and social core, using fear as an engine for change. As a result of the United States moving forward from the attacks and holding their strength, America faced legislative and political changes to ensure that the events of September 11th would never be repeated.  

Thusly the text impacts how this historical period is viewed because children our age were too young to understand the impact of the attacks. Our generation wasn’t able to see just how much our nation and the entire world was going to change because of these few, horrific hours in American history. Rereading the president’s speech about action and moving forward laid the foundation for the way the world was going to work from that point on. David Ciuk writes in ‘American’s value preferences pre and post 9/11’, “The attacks have been described as a trigger for cultural upheaval that forced Americans to change the way they think about the United States’ place in the world order” (408). This essay helps to convey the complete and total change the people and the nation underwent as a direct result of the attacks. We continue to feel the ramifications of that today in airport security lines, seeing armed security officers on city street corners, and the way the American people still face the fear of another terrorist attack. This speech is what sent the U.S. and the rest of the world into what we now know to be the modern era, just as the end of the second world war and the Cold War used fear to drive change earlier in the 20th century. The 9/11 attacks and more importantly how the American people reacted to them, has been the engine that changed the modern mindset forever, and that is why this speech heralds such immense historical relevance to the time period we have adapted to live in today.
