Bush on 9/11: 'I Didn't Have a Strategy. I Was Living Day by Day,' Former President Tells National Geographic Channel

Aug. 24, 2011 — -- At the very moment that George W. Bush was advised about attacks on the United States in Sept. 11, he was reading to a group of elementary school students in Florida. He famously continued reading the book, "The Pet Goat," for several minutes afterward, because, he later said, he "didn't want to rattle the kids."

Members of the media who were present in the classroom were also getting the news of the attacks.

"And it was like watching a silent movie," the former president told the National Geographic Channel in an interview for the channel's special program on the 9/11 attacks. "In the back of the room, reporters were on their cell phones. They were getting the same message I got. Which meant that a lot of people would be watching my reactions to these crises."

George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview premieres Sunday, August 28 on the National Geographic Channel.

Even though his first reaction was "anger, who the hell … would do that to America?" the 43rd president said he "made the decision not to jump up immediately … I didn't want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm."

The interview focuses on Bush's experiences on that day. In it, he talks about the hard decisions he had to make, including giving the order to shoot down any commercial aircraft that failed to obey orders to land – and the difficulties of being a wartime president forced to make life and death decisions.

"I never campaigned on you know, 'Please elect me, I'll be a … the kind of wartime chief you'll be proud of.' The war came upon us unexpectedly … And I made the decisions as best I could in the fog of war," he said.

Bush also opens up about his fears for his own family's safety on that day, and the relief he felt when he learned his wife, Laura, and their two daughters were safe.

An estimated 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. Another jet – reportedly bound for the White House -- crashed onto a field in Shanksville, Pa., when passengers fought the terrorists for control of the craft.