Bush: Waterboarding, surveillance ‘necessary’

Here's something else from the book: " September 11th redefined sacrifice, it redefined duty and it would redefine my job. I could never forget what happened to America that day. I would pour my heart and soul into protecting this country, whatever it took."

Former President GEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah.

LAUER: It took two wars.

Pres. BUSH: Yeah.

LAUER: It took thousands of lives, American lives, billions of dollars. You could say it took Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib .

Pres. BUSH: Yeah.

LAUER: And government eavesdropping and waterboarding. Did it take too much?

Pres. BUSH: We didn't have an attack. Three thousand people died on September the 11th. And I vowed that I would do my duty to protect the American people , and they didn't hit us again. Time dulls memory, and I understand that. But it didn't dull my memory because I was charged with protecting America . And those decisions I made were necessary.

MEREDITH VIEIRA, co-host: Hm.

LAUER: Seven-thirty now on a Thursday morning. It's the fourth of November, 2010 . That, of course, former President George W. Bush opening up in his first interview since leaving the White House . I'm Matt Lauer alongside Meredith Vieira . And there's a lot more of that interview on a wide variety of subjects coming up on Monday night as we have a special interview, a prime-time interview, at 8, 7 Central time right here on NBC .

VIEIRA: Then he's going to join us, as well, right?

LAUER: That's right . A couple of days later on Wednesday, November 10th , President Bush will join us live in our studio. So we'll get to continue our conversation. We're looking forward to that very much.