Chris Wallace - Countdown 1945 Virtual Event
SOLD OUT! THIS PROGRAM MAY STILL BE VIEWED ON FACEBOOK LIVE: facebook.com/mjccaarts
Join our partner, the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, for a Zoom Live event with veteran journalist and anchor of “Fox News Sunday,” Chris Wallace, on honor of his latest book, “Countdown 1945” — an electrifying behind-the-scenes account of the 116 days leading up to the American attack on Hiroshima.
This free program is presented in partnership with the JCCs of Cherry Hill, Dallas, Indianapolis, Miami, Rochester, and St. Louis.
A Cappella Books will have copies of “Countdown 1945,” which include a signed book plate, available after the event. We will provide local drop-off to most in-town Atlanta neighborhoods (for purchases of $20 or more), as well as prompt shipping and curbside pick-up for customers outside of our delivery areas.
About the Book
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,” Wallace 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. Truman’s journey during these 116 days is a story of high drama: from the shock of learning of the bomb’s existence, to the conflicting advice he receives from generals like Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Marshall, to wrestling with the devastating carnage that will result if he gives the order to use America’s first weapon of mass destruction.
But “Countdown 1945” is more than a book about the atomic bomb. It’s 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.
About the Authors
Chris Wallace is the anchor of Fox News Sunday. In his sixteen years at Fox, Wallace has covered almost every key 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.
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 seven books.
