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Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World (Chris Wallace’s Countdown Series) Hardcover – Illustrated, June 9, 2020
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April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents—and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. Countdown 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months to follow, leading up to August 6, 1945, when Truman gives the order to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.
In Countdown 1945, Chris Wallace, the veteran journalist and CNN anchor and Max host, takes readers inside the minds of the iconic and elusive figures who join the quest for the bomb, each for different reasons: the legendary Albert Einstein, who eventually calls his vocal support for the atomic bomb “the one great mistake in my life”; lead researcher J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer and the Soviet spies who secretly infiltrate his team; the fiercely competitive pilots of the plane selected to drop the bomb; and many more.
Perhaps most of all, Countdown 1945 is the story of an untested new president confronting a decision that he knows will change the world forever. But more than a book about the atomic bomb, Countdown 1945 is also an unforgettable account of the lives of ordinary American and Japanese civilians in wartime—from “Calutron Girls” like Ruth Sisson in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to ten-year-old Hiroshima resident Hideko Tamura, who survives the blast at ground zero but loses her mother and later immigrates to the United States, where she lives to this day—as well as American soldiers fighting in the Pacific, waiting in fear for the order to launch a possible invasion of Japan. Told with vigor, intelligence, and humanity, Countdown 1945 is the definitive account of one of the most significant moments in history.
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAvid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
- Publication dateJune 9, 2020
- Dimensions6.13 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-101982143347
- ISBN-13978-1982143343
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Editorial Reviews
Review
#1 WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
#1 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER
“[A] superb, masterly book . . . Countdown 1945 is filled with fascinating details. . . . On one hand, the book reads like a riveting novel as Wallace reveals the machinations and internal debates among the scientific community to devise a workable atomic bomb as quickly as possible. . . . But Countdown 1945 is also a profound story of decision making at the highest levels—and of pathos.”
—Jay Winik, New York Times Book Review
“A compelling and highly readable account of one of the most fateful decisions in American history. Like John Hersey in his book Hiroshima, Wallace and Weiss humanize events too often reduced to technical or diplomatic arcana by telling their story through the lives of individuals. . . . The book moves along at a rapid clip, with colorful anecdotes enlivening the narrative.”
—Gregg Herken, The Washington Post
“Vivid and engaging . . . Wallace has made a taut nonfiction thriller out of the dramatic days between Harry S. Truman’s succession to the presidency, following Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945, and the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than four months later. . . . This is a deeply absorbing reading experience about the fateful final months of a conflict that deserves to be known in detail to all Americans. It is what a popular history book should be: propulsively paced; well researched in primary sources; and written with sympathetic imagination, bringing people to life in their important moments. . . . The book is deservedly the nonfiction blockbuster of the season.”
—James D. Hornfischer, The Wall Street Journal
“Brisk, naturally propulsive . . . But Countdown 1945 also reflects the rigor and fealty to facts that have distinguished Wallace.”
—Time
“Propulsive, heart stopping, and impossible to put down . . . The tension in Countdown 1945 is palpable. . . . Wallace and Weiss bring those 116 days of history to life in vivid color, crafting a story as unique as it is horrifying. Their writing is nothing short of phenomenal, a historical tapestry that reads like a carefully curated combination of Stephen King and Stephen Ambrose.”
—Steve Leonard, Modern War Institute at West Point
“Everyone knows the outcome, yet Wallace manages to make this carefully researched account of the months before Hiroshima read like a tense thriller.”
—Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post
“Gripping . . . Countdown 1945 is such a good read, crammed with information, fleshed out with vivid anecdotes, and told in a narrative that never flags.”
—The Washington Times
“Fox News Sunday host Wallace debuts with a propulsive account of the final months of WWII leading up to atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . . . Wallace, with help from journalist Weiss, writes with verve and an eye for cinematic detail . . . This accessible, evenhanded account serves as an entertaining introduction to one of the most momentous decisions in world history.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Entertaining . . . Wallace describes a moment in history when both intense deliberation and decisive leadership were essential. . . . A brisk work of history that weaves together the various factions responsible for the deployment of the first nuclear bombs.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“There is no finer journalist in America today than Chris Wallace and no more dramatic story in American history than Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb. Countdown 1945 moves at a breakneck pace and even though you know the ending, you can’t put it down. This is the most exciting book I’ve read all year.”
—Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired), #1 New York Times bestselling author of Make Your Bed and Sea Stories
“As a reporter and a news anchor, Chris has been at the center of the biggest news stories of the last four decades. He’s given perspective and insight when we’ve needed it most. Now, his same attention to detail fills the pages of Countdown 1945, the story of arguably the most consequential event in the U.S. since the Civil War. It’s a stunning piece of work.”
—George Clooney
“Countdown 1945 goes beyond our history lessons. It tells moving, personal stories of Americans who played pivotal roles in one of our most important moments as a nation. From scientists at the top of their field, to heroic members of our military, to everyday Americans, it’s an incredible story of how our country came together with a determined spirit to end a war and save countless lives.”
—Ambassador Nikki Haley, New York Times bestselling author of With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace
“Countdown 1945 is a real-life thriller about one of the most important events of the twentieth century. Veteran journalist Chris Wallace takes readers behind the scenes and brings to life the compelling story of the 116 days leading up to Hiroshima. Written like a spy novel, this is a must-read history that will educate and keep you turning the pages. Not to be missed!”
—Daniel Silva, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The New Girl
“Vivid, fast-paced, and wide-ranging, Countdown 1945 is a fine telling of one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable tales—how the United States designed, built, delivered, and detonated the first two atomic bombs over Japan.”
—Rick Atkinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Army at Dawn and The British Are Coming
About the Author
Mitch Weiss is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist for the Associated Press, covering subjects ranging from military misconduct, government corruption, and white-collar crimes to the housing meltdown and unsafe medical devices. He is also the critically acclaimed author or coauthor of nine books.
Product details
- Publisher : Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition (June 9, 2020)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1982143347
- ISBN-13 : 978-1982143343
- Item Weight : 1.08 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #129,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #78 in Nuclear Weapons & Warfare History (Books)
- #135 in Japanese History (Books)
- #1,131 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Mitch Weiss is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and a New York Times best-selling author. He has received numerous awards for his work, and his critically-acclaimed books have appeared on many lists. His richly textured military narratives delve into life and death issues on the battlefield and at home. His nine books have been published in more than a dozen counties, including China, England, France and Brazil. Weiss is a frequent speaker at book festivals and television. He currently works on national investigative projects for The Associated Press. In his career, he's been involved in investigative projects for major news organizations. Among the subjects: military misconduct, government corruption, white collar crimes, the housing meltdown and clerical sexual abuse. His agent is Frank Weimann at Folio Literary Management in New York.
Chris Wallace is an anchor for CNN and host of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, a wide-ranging interview program on Max. Prior to CNN, Wallace was the anchor of Fox News Sunday for eighteen years where he covered every major political event. Throughout his five decades in broadcasting, he has interviewed numerous U.S. and world leaders, including seven American presidents, and won every major broadcast news award for his reporting, including three Emmy Awards, the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton, and the Peabody Award. He is the New York Times bestselling author of COUNTDOWN BIN LADEN: The Untold Story of the 247-Day Hunt to Bring the Mastermind of 9/11 to Justice and COUNTDOWN 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World.
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I encourage and recommend this book and its both sides approach.
One question I had was why 116 days, which was answered in the last paragraph., based on timeline of Truman presidency until the dropping of bomb.
At the end of the book, Wallace discusses the morality of dropping the bomb. It is estimated that between 90,000 to 146,000 were killed in the bombing of Hiroshima and between 39,000 to 80,000 in the bombing of Nagasaki. Let’s just estimate that a total of 250,000 were killed from the two bombings. Previous to these bombings the Allied air raids on Japan killed between 240,000 to 900,000. Some of the American military estimated that between 250,000 to one million Americans would die in trying to take the island of Japan, because fighting would become more intense as the Japanese defended their homeland. Others have claimed that the war was already won and that the Japanese were on the verge of surrendering. Such an assertion can easily be dismissed. After the bombing of Nagasaki, almost all of the Japanese generals did not want to surrender. They wanted to fight on. Although the samurai warriors no longer exist, their code that death is better than surrender still pervades Japanese society and can be seen in the suicide bombers. The Emperor was able to override their determination to die rather than submit. If we had not dropped the bomb, probably at least a million Americans would have been killed and probably several million Japanese. If the saving of human life is a measure of the morality of an action, then our dropping the bomb, was an extremely moral act. It is true, that if every nation possessed such a bomb and used it in warfare, then the human race would either cease to exist or live in a state unrecognizable as human life. So every precaution was set in motion to prevent this from occurring, but the notion that if the United States had never developed the bomb, then no other nation would have felt the need to do so is an absurdity, and our failure to develop the bomb would have put us at the mercy of an aggressor who did possess it.
The nice thing about popular histories that appeal to a general reader is that they move quickly like a well written novel. Wallace and co-writer Mitch Weiss apply the formula to the Manhattan Project / atomic bomb use by focusing on Oppenheimer (the chief scientist at Los Alamos), Tibbits (the commander of the bomb group that dropped the bomb) and President Truman. Plenty of other characters appear in the book including a ten year old Japanese girl who would experience the bomb first-hand near ground zero.
I only found one factual mistake, but it was minor and involved an aside and not the main thrust of the story (the kamikaze sinking of the USS Callaghan, a destroyer about which the book says "All forty-seven men on board lost their lives." Destroyers had a crew of 300+).
The only thing I would have liked to have seen was some introduction of Japanese leadership discussion at this stage of the war. It is a given that Japan was not likely to surrender absent an invasion (some will debate this but the record is convincing I believe that many more Americans and Japanese would perish in an invasion than died at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that it wold have taken an invasion to get Japan to surrender), but there were some discussions internally about how Japan would play their last round of a war they knew they were losing. This given weighed heavily on Truman and American leadership, but the casual reader will have to accept the authors' premise of this given because no evidence is provided. I realize that may have made for a longer book, but I think the book would have been more complete a telling with that perspective. (If you want this perspective, Richard Frank has written a great book on the end of the Japanese empire that covers this, "Downfall.")
It does throughout the book state details of movement, action, and thought that were not recorded and provided to improve the novelistic flow of the story (page 65: "Beser twisted his hat I his hands and wondered what the men inside the room were saying." Beser died in 1992, well before this book was conceived.). I'm not a big fan of making things up in popular histories and wish authors would not resort to this colorization of the story, common as it is.
Not sure that is worth deducting an entire star in a book I really enjoyed, but there you have it.
Note: A really good first person account of the bombing can be had in the book War's End, by Sweeney. Sweeney was the man who piloted the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki).