The separate phone calls between Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush as he prepared to make the announcement underscore the long duration of the conflict, which has settled four presidential administrations and nearly 20 years.
“He values their views and wanted them both to hear directly from him about his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday of Biden’s calls with Obama and Bush.
While Bush – who announced the start of the war on October 7, 2001 – declined to comment on his appeal with Biden, his spokesman Freddy Ford told CNN that former president and first lady Laura Bush “ remains committed to honoring and supporting empowering our post-9/11 veterans and women in Afghanistan through their work at the Bush Institute. “
In a nod to Bush’s role at the start of the nearly 20-year war, Biden delivered his comments on the withdrawal plan from the very same place in the White House Convention Chamber where the 43rd president began the war on October 7, 2001. announced.
The conversation between the 43rd and 46th presidents of the country was brief, according to two officials familiar with the call, which also described it as warm and cordial.
“President Biden made the right decision by completing the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement shortly after Biden made his first public comments on the decision.
Although he did not refer to his appeal with Biden in the statement, Obama said, “I support President Biden’s courageous leadership in building our nation at home and restoring our position around the world.”
That support carries symbolic weight, as Biden, then serving as Obama’s vice president, ardently argued against Obama that troops should be withdrawn in 2009.
At one point that year, he handwritten a memo to Obama calling for a withdrawal and faxed it to the White House from his Thanksgiving holiday on Nantucket. He made several attempts to make his case to Obama, who chose to ramp up troops before eventually getting much out of it.
Biden said on Wednesday that the pullout will begin on May 1, in accordance with an agreement that President Donald Trump’s administration has made with the Taliban. He said the full withdrawal will take place by September 11. Some US troops will continue to protect US diplomats, although officials declined to give an exact number.
After formally announcing the decision, the president visited the area of Arlington National Cemetery where many of America’s war victims from Afghanistan are buried, where he saluted a wreath that had been placed there.
This story was updated with additional details on Wednesday.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.