News Chris Wallace who provides a history of the lead up to the bombing of hiroshima in august of 19 a 45. 1945. Like the authors they commemorate, president ial libraries are living institutions. Finish certainly, it is my hope that the Reagan Library will become a dynamic intellectual forum where scholars interpret the past and policymakers debate the future. Welcome to the Ronald Reagan president ial foundation and institute Virtual Event series. To fulfill president reagans mission of making the library dynamic intellectual forum, our central of Foreign Affairs program presents perspectives on important Public Policy issues of the day. Each year we bring you 2030 events from politicians, authors, members of the media and more. Since the march 2020 closure of in the businesses across our country, the Reagan Foundation is now bringing events online to insure we are till delivering world class content even if you cant watch it in person. In this weeks event, we bring you Chris Wallace, anchor of fox news sunday. 2015 marked his 50th year in the broadcast industry. He has covered nearly every Major Political vent ands has secured important interviews with world leaders. He broadcast his show live from the Reagan Library in december of each year. Chris wallace is with us to speak about his new book, countdown 1945. An unforgettable account of the lives of the ordinary american and japanese civilians in wartime as well as the american soldiers fighting in the pacific, waiting in fear for the order to launch a possible [inaudible] , its the story of how in 199 days harry truman suddenly became the president. Its not only his story, its the story of scientists, the flight crew and others. We now invite you to enjoy our Virtual Program coming to us from our oval office with Chris Wallace and executive director helen highbush. Chris wallace, congratulations. What a terrific book. As you may know, you know, we have a lot of guests come to the Reagan Library who wrote some good books, and im not able to read them all. I could not put this one down. This is a terrific book, chris. It really is a thriller. I just loved it. And congratulations on not just the first effort, but a great first effort. Thank you. Thats awfully nice. I will say this idea of a historical thriller, it seems to be out there because my favorite review was one in the Washington Post that said i know what happened in 1945, but this book is a thriller. And a lot of people have said that its a pageturner, they couldnt put it down. And im thrilled because, frankly, thats exactly what i wanted to do. I think so much history, you know, this is in the distant past, we know what happened, why did it happened, and thats not at all what i wanted to do. And in this case its countdown 1945, the key moments in those 116 days from april 12th, 45, when trueman summoned to the white house truman is summoned to the white house, he thinks to talk to roosevelt, and then he finds out hes dead, and Henry Stimson takes the him aside and says i need to tell you about an immense project to create the most devastating weapon in true which is the first inkling Vice President , nowpresident truman has of the existence of the Manhattan Project. And to take you not just truman as hes struggling and making the decision, but the scientists at los alamos who dont know whether the gadget, as they call the atom bomb, would even work until 21 is days before the bombing. And the flight crew of the enola gay who, on the mission during their mission to hiroshima, the 1500 miles, dont know if the bomb, when they drop it because its never been dropped out of a mane of a plane, whether the aftershocks will knock them out of the sky. Thats what i was trying to do, and when i hear its a pageturner and a thriller, im throughed. My father was a b29 pilot in the air force, so i was rivetted. But your father doesnt need to have been in the Army Air Corps to like this book. Really well done. You put us in the room where it happened on many occasions, and thats just a, you know, a masterful job, so well done. Well, thank you. Thats exactly what i was trying to do, and there are so many dramatic moments. Truman, he has a meeting with his war cabinet on june 18th, and Henry Stimson, the secretary of war there, george marshall, the general of the army there, all of the top brass. And their theyre discussing now that the nazis have surrendered on may 8th, how theyre going to finish and win the war against the japanese. And for about 45 minutes, theres a long discussion of the invasion of squaw pan; how many of japan; how many troops it will take, how many hundreds of thousands the of casualties there will be on both sides. And at the end theres quite a junior man in the room, the assistant secretary of war, named john mccloy who ended up becoming a major figure in mudcentury america midcentury america. He was a member of the warren commission, he was the held of the world bank. But he was a junior guy there, and truman says nobody gets out of the room without telling what they think. And mccloy asked henry timson his boss stimson, and he saws, go ahead. He says, i think we ought to have our heads examine if we dont at least discuss the bomb. And that was literally in his war cabinet the first time in this meeting. Theyd been talking about the casualtieses and the length of the invasion and how blood duh, and nobody bloody it was going to be, but nobody said, yeah, but we might have the bomb until he said it x. Basically it was dismissed largely because it had never been tested. Wasnt tested until july 18th, just 21 days before the bomb was used against hiroshima. And at that point back in june, truman viewed it as a science project. If it worked all right, if out didnt, you know, we had to go ahead. So many historical moments you wrote about, chris. I wonder, i know youre a student of history, what is it that made you choose this particular moment . Well, its a funny story. I had the idea of doing exactly what i talked at about, take a key moment in history and try to put you in it, you know, at the time they didnt know all these things. Theyre faced with these momentous challenges. I was fortunate enough to cover six years of reagan including the Reagan Gorbachev summits. But, you know, having covered it in real life, the drama of reykjavik and these enormous discussions expect possibility that they might ban and the possibility that they might ban all Nuclear Weapons and then fit all then it all falls awe awe part. They went there with these hopes, and they had this meeting, and, you know, out creates a tremendous sense of suspense. So i wanted to do that, but you have a subject. In february of 2019, it was the day that President Trump was going to deliver his state of the union address, and nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, invited several tv anchors over to her hideaway in the capitol. And this is a hideaway that a lot of speakers have, and this is a tradition in washington that the speaker and the president who are of opposing parties this is true for a republican president , democratic speaker and vice versa that the speaker will deliver a prebuttal to tell you all the reasons that its bad. So were sutting in this room sitting in this room, and nancy pelosi says this is the board of education. I dont think the other folks in the room knew, but i knew that the board of education had been sam rayburns hideaway x. This is where he would have people come after hours to gossip or to plot strategy the or to have a bourbon and ranch water. And Vice President truman was a regular there. So on april 12th after he finished presiding over the senate, he went over. Pelosis telling us this story, she said it was in this room that truman called the white house, he was told they wanted to speak to him, and he calls and speaks to a white house official who says you need to get to the white house as quickly and quietly as possible. And truman puts down the phone and says to the room, jesus and general jackson. [laughter] which i had never heard before. But i thought to myself, thats it. Thats my, thats my story. Thats the one im going the delve into and try to create a historical througher. And as it turns out, i didnt know then thriller. I didnt know then that 116 days until the bomb is dropped on hiroshima. Yeah. You know, in your first book, chris, some writers report after their first book today just had a fabulous time, they loved the experience, and some found it miserable. Are how did you find your first book . Yes. [laughter] you know, it is a are odd experience. Its a roller coaster. There are times when you get a delicious fact. Thats really what is so exciting, is is, you know, i didnt know that when truman, you know, i knew the story of jesus christ and general jackson is, so thats a good start. But i didnt know when i started the project that when truman gets to the white house and is sworn is, he is alerted for the first time about the Manhattan Project. And theres so many juicy Little Details like that. One of the details is the fact that they only had tested the bomb once on july 21st. Im sorry, july 1 is 6th. 16th. And 21 is days before they ended up using it. Is so now theyre at the launch pad for the flight to hi e roche ma, about 1500 miles. And somebody says, look, if we put this 10,000pound bomb, which was very inappropriately called little boy, in the front of the plane and then we have to put a bunch of extra bass in the back of gas in the back of the plane, itll be with more weight than weve ever carried. And the plane might crash on takeoff. And if, an atom bomb, we could are an atomic explosion at the u. S. Base on the island which will destroy all of us and wont do anything to the japanese. So they suddenly say this is only about two draws before the mission we cant take off with a live bomb. Were going to have to arm the bomb on the plane during the mission. And thaw say, can you do that . And he says, well, i never have, but i guess ill learn. So in the plane on the ground in sweltering heat working on out, trying to do it it. And then when they finally do take off with an unarmed bomb, get off safely and theyre on the way to hiroshima, he gets down, crazings in the bomb cradles in the bombay, and he has to do some of the rewiring. Then they have to talk off the safety plugs and put in the arming plugs, and it is only then, midway through the flight, that they say the plane the bomb is actually armed and ready to go. Thats a detail that, you know, is just a joy. So to go back to your question. So moments like that its a joy. And then there are times when youre just trying to how do i tell the story, and how do i put all of these disparate elements together, and you think, man, this is hard work. My daughters in publishing, and at one point shes been in publishing for ten years. Not at my publisher. Theres no reverse nepotism here. I said to her, boy, writing a book is hard work, and she rolled her eyes and said, gee, dad, im glad you discovered that. [laughter] its tough to make a living. Chris, did it surprise you it did me that truman didnt know the first thing about the building of this bomb. And then i read you have written that he and roosevelt had only spoken a couple of times during this fourth term of the presidency. But its, it just seems as the Vice President , he should have been read into something as important as this, but i guess that was the case. Yeah. A lot of people have asked me about that, and it does seem uncredible. Hed been Vice President for 82 draws x. He had met privately with roosevelt twice in those 82 days. And the fact was that, youve got to remember, this was roosevelts fourth them. He had this wasnt his first or even his second Vice President. So he had gotten pretty good at ignoring Vice President s, and i think he thought, you know, Vice President s come and go, ive got my war cabinet, and those are the people that i count on to make these decisions. And he had just sort of shunted truman off to the side. So i mentioned the fact that stimson takes him aside on the day hes sworn in and says im going to tell you about this project, but he doesnt he knows that truman is overwhelmed. Hes just become the president. So he says im going to give you some time to settle in, and then ill come back. On april 25th, 13 days later, he comes into the to oval office to brief president truman now that hes settled in not even quite two weeks. And meanwhile, general leslie rose who is the real military commander of the Manhattan Project, is snuck in through underground tunnels. They thought if the two of them came through the front door together, people were going to wonder what groves and stimson were doing together. And so he snuck in, and they gave truman a detailed document to read which which really explained the Manhattan Project in historical detail and technical detail. And truman complained, he said i dont like reading long documents like this. And grove said, mr. President , i cant we cant say it any more briefly or succinctly. Its a complicated project. And he, uni, you know, thats how out of touch he was with it. But at the time it counted when he made the decision, he knew he had mastered all of it. Yeah. And another remarkable fact i found from reading your book, chris, is 125,000 people, americans, working on this manhattan prompt and not a word project and not a word gets occupant. Thats just amazing. Well, youre exactly right. Its one of the things that astonished me too. And, you know, people say to me what was it you covered, the ups and downs, the ins and outs in washington today, you know, what was the, what was it like writing this book, and i said one of the things i enjoyed most about writing, researching and writing and now talking about this book is it has absolutely nothing to do with donald trump. [laughter] its not a knock on the president , its just to say that it took me away from all the stuff were in, and it goes precisely to your point because youre exactly right. They had been working on this project for almost three years, two plus years, 125,000 people at oak ridge, tennessee, uranium enrichment, los alamos working on the bomb, in washington, flight crews in wednesdayover, utah wendover, utah, and not one word leaks about the project. And i thought to myself if you had 125,000 people today working on a secret project to bake apple pie, by day two somebody would tweet this is outrageous, im going to blow the whistle on this thing. [laughter] john, it was a simpler time, it was a time when all the country was unified, everybody pulled together in common cause to win the war against the nazis and the japanese. And, you know, boy, could we use that now. Yeah, youre not kidding. Youre not kidding. Another, i thought, fascinating thing, of course you covered the major, mayor figures involved in the project there from truman to nimitz and believe groves, but you also chose to focus in on hawaii deco that mar rah. You know, tell us, tell the listeners about those two, which i thought was a great youngs tata position juxtaposition throughout the book. Well, one of the things that we wanted to do with this book is i very much wanted, you know, its not just to be on the top level because, of course, the war wasnt just on the top level of the scientists. It engaged all of america, and one of the stories i wanted to tell was the home front. And we found the. [inaudible] there are web sites where, you know, there is commentary about various people, and amazingly, we found two people who are still alive. Obviously, all of the big players are long gone. Ruth simpson was a 19yearold girl. He had volunteered to work at oak ridge, at the uranium enrichment fundamental. He didnt know what it was. She just she didnt know what it was. She just knew it was a giant factory, and the women, they basically just had a bunch of knobs that they had to keep the meter in the right place, not go into the red. They had no idea, they were just told keep the meter in the red, and youll help win the war. They had no idea what they were doing was enriching uranium, creating u235 and plutonium to fuel the at atom bomb. She had a boyfriend, later her husband, lawrence huddleston, who was in europe, had been an army medic anded had survived all the fighting. On may 8th the war in europe ends, the nazis surrender and like a lot of other people, shes delighted because her boyfriend had gotten through this, but shes terrified because hes not going to come home. The expectation hes now going to be shipped to an even bloodier conflict. So what she didnt realize was, you know, the kind of dramatic irony of this, is she is creating or helping create the weapon that, if it is used, could save her boyfriends life x. Thats exactly what happened. Hideko tamura, an even more dramatic story. Often times history there are plot lines that you would never dream of inventing yourself if you were going to write a novel or do a movie. She was a 10yearold girl who came from quite a wealthy family in hiroshima. And like a lot of the families all throughout the country, they didnt have any expectation of an atom bomb, but they certainly expected they hadnt been bombed at all. So the parents would send their children out to the countryside so that if there were a bombing, theyd be safe. They sent hideko, her parents did, to what they thought was a school that ended up really being a work camp. Hideko was a very willful 10yearold, hated it. Well, she couldnt send a letter home because the school censored it, i think because a lot of the students were telling their parents get me out of there. So she mailed a letter in the local post office saying get me out of here. Her mother shows up on august 4th to rescue her, and hideko is thrilled, runs and, oh, thank you, mom. The mother say, hideko, look, theres a lot of fear in the cities, lets stay out here in the countryside for a few days x she says, absolutely not, i want to go home. To they spend the night and they go home on august 5th. And, of course, that means theyre