On September 9th 2011 Andrew Marr interviewed US Ambassador to the UK Louis Susman ANDREW MARR: Since President Obama appointed him to the Court of St. James, Ambassador Louis Susman has been a high profile American representative not just in London but all around the UK. Before his current diplomatic career, however, Ambassador Susman was a leading investment banker. On 11th September 2001, like millions of Americans, he watched in disbelief as the second hijacked plane crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Centre. But he didn't watch it on television. He was himself aboard a jet in the skies above New York on that appalling day. Ambassador, welcome. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Thank you very much, Andrew. ANDREW MARR: And before we talk about what's planned in London to remember 9/11, let's just talk about you yourself - you happened to be flying through the air space? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: I was on a private plane flying into New York landing at a private airport called Teterboro, New Jersey, and the pilots told me that, unbelievable, a plane had hit the World Trade Centre. We were in disbelief and they called me to the cockpit. And we were landing, we were watching, and we saw the second plane hit, and immediately we knew it was not an accident … ANDREW MARR: Yes. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: … and we were under attack. ANDREW MARR: And your son I think was in the World Trade Centre? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: My son was next door in the Merrill Lynch Tower, right next door to it. Unfortunately, as he was exiting, he saw people jumping out of buildings, covered with dust, and walked all the way from Wall Street, all the way up to the East side. ANDREW MARR: Yuh, yuh. And you lost in fact … Your son survived. You lost colleagues though, I think, didn't you? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: We lost six colleagues at … I was with Citibank at that time. And it's a tragedy that no-one will ever forget. And Americans - and I'm sure round the world do - but Americans always remember where they were on two dates: the assassination of President Kennedy and 9/11. ANDREW MARR: Yes, yes. Many of the rest of us do as well … AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Right. ANDREW MARR: … certainly the latter. So tell us a little bit about what's going to be happening in Britain - in London and elsewhere in Britain? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Well today there's church services everywhere, and I'm going to St. Paul's for a service. And then subsequently there's a major service in Grosvenor Square where Americans have built a memorial garden to the British, 67 of them that were lost, as well as to our own. And a Royal will be there, and the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, the Mayor, and yours truly. ANDREW MARR: A very important moment. Very hard to analyse what has happened overall since 9/11, both to America and the rest of the world. You've had the Patriot Act. I mean everything has changed in some respects. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Right. ANDREW MARR: Do you worry that the price in terms of liberty and so on for Americans in America, as well as people travelling around the world, has been too high? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: No, I really don't. You know it's easy to say you shouldn't do something and then something happens and you say wow, I wish I would have done something. You know the big thing that we've seen is the incredible resilience in both the American people and people round the world because besides these acts of terrorism - both 9/11 and other acts of terrorism - it hasn't caused our life to change. We don't live in fear, our societies move forward, our businesses work, we trade, people have the ability to go to any place of worship they like. So while we'll never forget this day, it's a moment which we feel confident of; that whatever we did, we protected America and in some places the world. ANDREW MARR: It was a sort of stumbling block, but not a different direction radically? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: I think so. I think that's well put. ANDREW MARR: I just wonder sometimes whether the huge focus that American policymakers and others have had to put on security - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and so on - took people's attention away from other things such as the deficit and the economic problems that we're going through now? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: (over) Unfortunately I think we have to be multi-taskers in the world … ANDREW MARR: Yeah, yeah. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: … and I think that the effort towards security - whether it's done through our homeland security or through our security agencies, our intelligence agencies, etcetera - is ongoing and always is foremost in the President's mind to protect Americans. Yet at the same time our ability to function with a strong economy, a strong balance sheet is equally as important in many ways because that's our way of life, and we need to be economically strong. So I think the attention is quite focused today on deficit reduction and getting our economy in a growth mode and getting unemployment down. ANDREW MARR: We've focused a lot - and rightly - on the American loss on that day. There was considerable British loss as well. What is the American view, would you say, of Tony Blair's role at the period immediately after 9/11, and indeed generally speaking the British contribution? AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Well I think we were overwhelmed at all levels the level of support and sympathy that we received. I particularly was moved when I heard that while many Americans gathered at Buckingham Palace to console themselves in some ways, that the Queen ordered for the first time in history that in the changing of the guard they played The Star Spangled Banner instead of God Save the Queen. ANDREW MARR: Yes and I can remember Last Night of the Proms. That was a very American Last Night of the Proms. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Oh yes, yes, I loved it very much. It's an event that has no equal. ANDREW MARR: Ambassador, thank you very much indeed for joining us this morning. AMBASSADOR SUSMAN: Andrew, it's always a pleasure to be here. INTERVIEW ENDS
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