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Summary
Summary
"A maddening, essential study in misinformation, jingoism, bad intelligence, and other hallmarks of the recent American past."-- Kirkus (starred review)
Anyone who experienced the attacks on September 11 cannot forget the imagery: the smoking, falling towers, the Pentagon smoldering, the Shanksville crash site, the first responders.
But there is an invisible story hidden in the wreckage, one that required years of patient investigation and the piecing together of a sequence from many scattered sources. By establishing the most definitive timeline of how that day unfolded, William M. Arkin shows how the US government failed in the face of the unprecedented attack. It is a story of laughable airport security, vulnerable airspace, blind intelligence, poor communications, muddled orders, Pentagon chaos, and presidential isolation. Everything about the emergency procedures of the governments--from White House security to continuity of government to military alerts--went wrong.
On That Day is a stunning, nightmare journey through a government reeling in confusion while many civilians performed individual acts of heroism. It is a chilling exposé of government negligence and overreach, and a constitution in crisis.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
A damning account of the federal government's response to 9/11 and the two-decade war that ensued. National security expert and commentator Arkin works from a vast, meticulously assembled, million-word dossier he has assembled on the 9/11 attackers and from the government record to deliver a chronicle that reveals several essential institutional breakdowns. One was the failure to honor "continuity of government" regulations that require those in the constitutional succession to the presidency to travel to safe locations in the event of attack. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert complied while, "when the condition presented itself for the government to take action to increase its survival, leaders brushed the apparatus aside." Another failure was to communicate effectively with both the nation's allies and Russia. American military movements following 9/11 were so sudden and inexplicable that Russia interpreted them as signaling the outbreak of war between the superpowers. Meanwhile, Arkin notes, Donald Rumsfeld scribbled a revealing note just hours after the attacks: "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough to hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden]. Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not." Clearly, then, the Bush administration was looking for a pretext to go to war with Iraq. The war that ensued, under the larger rubric of the war on terror, was undeclared. Even the rules of engagement on the day of the attack and its aftermath were ambiguous and variously interpreted--though Arkin reveals that it was generally understood that U.S. military aircraft were free to fire on civilian airliners suspected of posing threats. Whatever the case, Arkin writes in this relentlessly revealing narrative, 9/11 ushered in a war that has not stopped since, "evidence of the overreaction of a frustrated and humiliated Washington." Nothing has improved in the years since, and the author clearly shows how the government's failures on 9/11 were only recapitulated with Covid-19 as an exercise in feckless action. A maddening, essential study in misinformation, jingoism, bad intelligence, and other hallmarks of the recent American past. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Millions of Americans watched the tragedy of 9/11 unfold in real time, whether on television or in New York, DC, or rural Pennsylvania. Arkin has compiled a detailed account of the events of that day related to the attacks, resulting in one of the most important historical documents of the year. He goes into exacting, sometimes minute details of the activities and thoughts of the major players of the day, from the terrorists to first responders, and more. Arkin builds his minute-by-minute account with a cool yet engaging journalistic style that has the added result of imbuing the narrative with growing levels of suspense--despite the fact that most people know how the main story works out. Arkin also has the advantage of twenty years of investigations from which to draw obscure but fascinating facts. For some the result may be too much information. In the final analysis, though, for tragic events like 9/11, there can be no such thing as too much truth.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations | p. xiii |
Introduction | p. 1 |
That Day | p. 13 |
Chapter 1 A Routine Tuesday | p. 15 |
Chapter 2 "We Have Some Planes" | p. 40 |
Chapter 3 "We Have a Hijacked Aircraft" | p. 55 |
Chapter 4 The North Tower Is Struck | p. 65 |
Chapter 5 "America Is Under Attack" | p. 88 |
Chapter 6 Goodbye, Pet Goat | p. 104 |
Chapter 7 "An Apparent Terrorist Attack on Our Country" | p. 118 |
Chapter 8 Washington Attacked | p. 131 |
Chapter 9 "Let's Roll" | p. 163 |
Chapter 10 Continuity of Government | p. 180 |
Chapter 11 "Cleared to Engage" | p. 196 |
Chapter 12 Defense Condition 3 | p. 236 |
Chapter 13 A President Missing in Action | p. 266 |
Chapter 14 "Weapons Free" | p. 290 |
Chapter 15 "We're at War" | p. 303 |
Chapter 16 A White House Restored, a Nation on Edge | p. 313 |
Chapter 17 "Evil, Despicable Acts of Terror" | p. 333 |
Mohammed Atta's Final Letter | p. 345 |
Personalities Mentioned in the Timeline | p. 353 |
Acronyms | p. 357 |
Acknowledgments | p. 361 |