c-span2, online the c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. after that louisiana governor john bel edwards talk about the impact of the storm on his state. he will be briefing reporters in baton rouge. >> weeknights this month we are featuring booktv programs as a preview of what's available every weekend on c-span2. >> enjoy tv on c-span2.

>> like the office they commemorate presidential libraries are living institutions. certainly it is my hope that the reagan library will become a dynamic intellectual forum that scholars interpret the past and policymakers debate the future. >> welcome to the ronald reagan presidential foundation institutes virtual event series. to fulfill the mission of making the reagan library dynamic intellectual forum are sent for public affairs program offers lectures presenting perspectives on important public policy issues of the day. each you would bring to 20-30p from politicians, office, embers of the needy, this is a military meters and more. since the march 2020 closure of many businesses across our great country the reagan foundation is bringing events online to ensure we're still delivering world-class content even if you can't get to our hilltop to watch it in person.

in this weeks virtual event we bring you chris wallace, anchor of "fox news sunday." 2014 mark his 50th year in the broadcasting industry. he has participate coverage of nearly every major political event and is also secured high-profile interviews with dignitaries and u.s. leaders. for the past three years chris wallace have broadcast the sunday morning shows life of the reagan libraries air force one pavilion folding a reagan national defense form in december future. chris wallace is with us today to speak about his new book "countdown 1945: the extraordinary story of the atomic bomb and the 116 days that changed the world." which is an unforgettable account of the life of the ordinary american and japanese civilians in wartime. as was the american soldiers fighting in the pacific. it's the story of how in 116 days harry truman concern being a vice president who has been completely cut out at the after white house to suddenly become

the president. it's the only his story it's the start of the scientist, the flight crew and others. >> chris wallace, congratulations. what a terrific book. as you may know we have a lot of guests, to the reagan library and some with some good books. i'm not able to read them all. i could not put this one down. this is a terrific book, chris, a thriller really come a historical thriller. i i just loved it and so congratulations on not just the first step at a great first step. >> thank you. that's awfully nice. i will say this idea of the historical thriller, it seems to be out there because my favorite review was one of the

"washington post" the said i know what in 1945 but this book is a thriller are a lot of people have said that it's a page turner, they could put it down. i'm thrilled because frankly that's exactly what i wanted to do. i think so much history is written, you know, this is in the distant past. we know what happened. why did it happen. thus not all what it wanted to do. i wanted to take into the moment and in this case it's countdown 1945, the key moments in this 116 days from april 12, 45, when truman is summoned to the white house picky thinks come he thinks to talk to president roosevelt and then he finds out that roosevelt is dead and he has sworn in and henry stenson a sector for takes inside afterwards and says, i need to tell you about an immense project to create the most devastating weapon in history which is the first inkling vice president, now president truman has a the existence of the

manhattan project. and to take you not just truman as you struggling and making the decision of the scientist at los alamos who don't know whether the gadget as as a call the atm bomb would even work until 21 days before the bombing and the flight crew of the enola gay who on the mission during their mission to hiroshima, 1500 miles to hiroshima from tinian island, don't know if the bomb when the topic is us as have been droppd out of the plane, but the aftershocks will knock them right out of the sky. that's what i was trying to do and the fact the use of the people john, have said it was a page turner and a thriller. i'm thrilled. >> chris, my father was a pilot in the army air force so i was riveted as you can imagine, but your father doesn't need to have been in the army air corps to like this book. so really well done.

you put us in the room where it happens on many occasions and that's just a masterful job come so well done. >> thank you. that's exactly what i was trying to do. there are so many dramatic moments. truman, he has meeting with his war cabinet on june 18, and henry stenson the secretary of war is there, george marshall, the jewel of the army, all of the top brass and are discussing now the nazis have surrendered on may 8, how they're going to finish and when the war against the japanese. for about 45 minutes there's a long discussion of the invasion of japan, how many troops that will take, how long it will prolong the war, how many hundreds of thousands of casualties there will be on both sides. and at the end there's quite a junior megan romcom the assistant secretary for name john mccoy who ended up becoming a major figure in

midcentury america. he was the high commissioner to me, a member of the one commission, the head of the world bank. but he was a junior guide there, truman says nobody gets out of the room, mark y, without telling what they think. mccoy asked henry stimson, his boss, of the war department and he says go ahead picky says i think we ought to have our heads examined if you don't at least discuss the bomb. that was literally in this war cabinet the first time in this meeting it been talking about the casualties and link the invasion and a bloody would be a nobody had ever said might have the bomb, until he said it, and basically it was dismissed at that point largely because david never been tested. it wasn't tested until july 18, just 21 days before the bomb was used against hiroshima. back in june truman viewed as a science project. if it worked, right, if it

didn't we had to go ahead. >> so many historical moment you wrote about. i wonder, i know you were a student of history. what is it that made you choose this particular moment? >> well, it's a funny story. i had the idea of doing exactly what i talked about, to take a key moment in history and try to put you in it. at the time they did know all these when they are faced with these momentum challenges antidotes could happen. it would be like talking about reagan and what ended up happening in terms of gorbachev. i was fortunate enough to cover six years of reagan including the summits that having covered it in real life, the drama of reykjavík and these enormous discussions and the possibility they might ban all nuclear weapons and then it all falls apart. to just say reykjavík failed is one thing.

to say they had this meeting and develops, it creates a tremendous sense of suspense. i wanted to do that but but i t have the subject. in february of 2019 it was the day 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 capital, this is the hideaway for a lot of speakers have an there's a tradition in washington that if the speaker and the president who are of opposing parties, this is true for for a republin president, democratic speaker and vice versa, that the speaker will deliver a pre-bath which is basically before the president delivered his speech to tell you all the reasons that it's bad. we are sitting in this room and nancy pelosi says this is the board of education to idle think of the folks in the room knew but i knew that the board of education had been sam ray burns

hideaway and this is where he was at people, after hours to gossip or to plot charge or to have bourbon and water. vice president rivlin was a regular there. so want a 12 after he finished right of the sentiment over the pelosi's selling us a story and said it is in this room that truman called the white house come he was told they want to speak to him and he calls and speaks to white house official who says you need to get to the white house as quickly and quietly as possible, and truman stemmed the phone and says to the room, jesus christ and general jackson. which i'd never heard before. but i thought to myself, that's it, that's my story and that's the one i'm going to delve into and try to create a historical thriller. as a turnout, i did know then, 116 days from when he is alerted that roosevelt has died and he is president until the bomb is dropped on hiroshima.

>> your first book, chris, some writers report after the first book they just had a fibrous time and love the experience, and found it miserable. how did you find writing your first book? >> yes. [laughing] you know, it is a very odd experience. it's a roller coaster. there are times when you get a delicious fact. that's really what is so exciting is, you know, i didn't know that when truman, i knew this story about jesus christ and general jackson saw thought that would be a good start but i did know when i started the project that when treatment gets to the white house and his sworn and he is alerted for the first time about the existence of the manhattan project, and there's so many juicy little details like that. one of the details is the fact that the only at have tested the

bomb once on july 21. i'm sorry, july 16. 21 days before the ended up using it, so now the rat tinian island which was the launchpad for the flight to hiroshima about 1500 miles, and somebody says, look, if we put this 10,000-pound bomb, which was very inappropriate called little boy, in the front of the plane and then we have to put a bunch of extra gas in the back back e plane so that won't fall down, it will be more weight than we've ever carried and the plane might crash on takeoff. if there's an atom bomb, we could have an atomic explosion at the u.s. base on tinian island which will destroy all of us and won't do anything to the japanese. so they suddenly say, this is only about two days before the nation, we can't take off with a live bomb. we'll have to arm the bomb on the plane during the mission, editor of the chief ordnance

officer, and they say can you do that? he says, i never have but i guess i will learn. so he sits in the plane on the ground in tinian island in sweltering heat working on it trying to do it and when you finally do take off with an unarmed bomb, get off safely, and they are on the way to hiroshima, he gets down, cradles in the bomb bay next to look at what you take off some of the casing, do some of the rewiring and then have to take off the safety plugs and put in the army plugs. it is only then midway through the flight that they say the bomb is actually armed and ready to go. that's a detail that is just a joy. now to go back to question. so moments like that it's a joy. and then there are times when you're just trying to, how do i tell the story and how to put all of these disparate elements together?

you think, man, this is hard work. my daughter is in publishing and a one point, she's been a publishing for dinges, not as my publisher. there's no reverse nepotism here but i said to her, boy, writing the book is hard work. she rolled her eyes and said gee, dad, i'm glad you discovered that. [laughing] >> it's tough to make a living. chris, did it surprise you -- it did me -- that truman didn't know the first thing about the building of this bomb. then i read you had written he and roosevelt had only spoken a couple of times during this fourth term of the presidency. it just seems almost inconceivable as a vice president he had never been madd into something so important is this what i guess that was the case? >> a lot of people have asked me about that and it does seem incredible. he had been vice president for 82 days and he had met

privately, he'd been big meetings, but he met privately with roosevelt twice in those 82 days. the fact was that just remember this with roosevelt's fourth term. this was in his first or even his second vice president, so he'd gotten pretty good at ignoring vice president. i think he thought, you know, vice presidents, go. i've got my war cabinet and those are the people i i countn to make these decisions, and it just sort of shunted off to the side. i mention the fact that stinson takes him aside on the day he swore in excess i'm going to tell you about this project, but he knows that treatment is overwhelmed. he has just become the president places i'll give you some time to settle and and i will come . on april 25, 13 days later, he comes in the oval office to brief president truman, now that he has settled in not even quite two weeks, and meanwhile general

leslie groves was a real military command of the manhattan project is snuck in through underground tunnels and one of the reasons was given this a lot of thought and can't they thought the two of them coming to the front door together, people wonder grossly built the pentagon who was the big mission man what groves and stinson were doing together and so he snuck in and they gave truman a detailed document to read, which would explain the manhattan project in historical detail and technical detail. and treatment complete he said, i don't like reading long documents like this. groves said, mr. president, we can't say any more briefly or succinctly. it's a complicated project. you know, that's how out of touch he was with it but, of course, by the end of the time accounted when he made the

decision, he knew he had mastered all of it. >> another remarkable fact i found from reading your book, chris is 125,000 people, americans, working on this manhattan project, and not a word gets out. that is just amazing. >> you are exactly right. it's one of the things that astonished me, too. .. it's not a knock on the buzzer, it just took me away from all the stuff within and it goes precisely what you said, they had been working on it three

years, two plus years. one hundred -- 25 people was almost in washington, life crews in utah and not one word leaks about the project. i thought to myself, if you had 125,000 people today working on a secret project to make apple pie, my day to people who would say it's outrageous, i'm going to blow the whistle. it was a simpler time, a time in the country was more unified, everybody pulled together to win the war against the nazis and the japanese and boy, we could use that now. >> another fascinating thing about the way you wrote the book, of course you covered major figures involved in the

project but then you also chose to focus in on a loose system and tell the listeners about those because i thought it was a great position throughout the book. >> one of the things we wanted to do with the book is i wanted -- not just to be on the top level because the war wasn't just on the top level, one of the stories i wanted to tell was the home front. there are websites, commentary about various people and amazingly, we found two people still alive.

a 19-year-old girl, she had volunteered to work at oak ridge, she didn't know what it was, a big factory there was a giant machine that the women, there's a different time when there was a college girl and they basically just had a bunch of knobs they had to keep the meter in the right place, they had no idea, they were just told keep the meter in the red and they will help when the war. they had no idea what they were doing to fuel the atom bomb. the home front but she's had a boyfriend, later her husband who was in europe, an army medic. may 8, the war in europe, the nazis surrender and, like a lot

of other people, she's delighted because her boyfriend has gone through this but she's terrified because is not going to come home. the expectation is he's shipped to an even bloodier complex in japan. what she didn't realize and it was the dramatic irony of this, she's creating weapons, if it's used, could save her boyfriend's life. an even more dramatic story. it's one of the great things in history, oftentimes history of what you would never dream of inventing yourself if you were going to write a novel. a 10-year-old girl, came from a wealthy family and like a lot of the families throughout the country, didn't have any

expectation of an atom bomb but they expected to be bombed, they haven't been bombed at all. out in the countryside so if there were a bombing, they would be saved. her parents saved what they thought was a school but it ended up being a work camp. the 10-year-old hated it but she couldn't send a letter home because the schooled sense of it. they're telling their parents, get me out of here so she snuck into the pound and mailed a letter in the local post office saying get me out of here. the mother shall also august 4 to read and here's thrilled and said thank you, mom and the mother says, there's a lot of fear in the cities, let's stay, i want to go home. they spent the night home and august 5, that means when the

bomb is dropped. >> amazing. i had a chance to see a clip of you him going into the smithsonian to see that right there. >> it's the kind of thing you would never have imagined so we did a documentary for fox news, anybody out there and i assume a lot of you do, you can find it there 1945 like the book and i said to her, we had just talked on the phone. would you consider coming to washington for an interview? she said well, under one condition. i want to see it.

i would never have dreamed of asking her to do something like that but she wanted to so we drove out one day and we got permission to go there before the museum opened and we went to see it, i didn't know what her reaction would be and she was kind of stunned and as you all know, from your dad, they are enormous. all shiny and we walked up to it and she was just taking it and i said, you feel anger? she said no, i feel grief. deeply griffiths stricken. she thought and i want to say a prayer. so she did and she said i think he is an old man, i think he needs to leave this museum and go to sleep. thought that was interesting.

and that was that. on some level, it provided some closure. >> it was a great moment. let's go back to truman for a second. summarize for me the dilemma that truly faced with the dropping of the bomb, his rationale. because you described so well in your book, it was going to save a lot of lives and take a lot lives. >> i think there are a couple of points i would make and obviously this is one of the great moral questions for the last 75 years. the 75th anniversary of all these ovens and dropping of the bomb on hiroshima, should we have dropped the bomb or not? i guess i hadn't really thought about it, it wasn't a choice between dropping the bomb were

doing nothing, is a choice between dropping the bomb for invaded. if we invaded, the top experts, the general marshal, all of the top people at the pentagon said this was the summer of 45, you can expect the work to go on at least another year end a half until the end of 1946 and you can expect 1 million japanese casualties and have nine american casualties because as they got closer to the japanese homeland, instead of the japanese soldiers beginning to lose spirit, they went to okinawa, they thought they would take it over in two days, it took them three months and they ended up having to kill 100,000 japanese and the 20000 left, none surrendered. some committed suicide, some cap biting, some were taken prison but they didn't surrender.

they knew they would have a terrible battle on their hands if they did invade. some people say okay, but they would have surrendered any way to which my response is, we dropped the bomb on he was shema august 6. japanese military government does not surrender for three days. so they drop a second bomb in the japanese military government still does not surrender and it's only been in prayer he revealed decides to go over to the people get on the radio it's literally the first time the vast majority of japanese have ever heard the voice of their emperor and he basically says we have to surrender. that was it but it took two bombs and an emperor going over the heads of the government to get the japanese to surrender.

i think one issue, and i don't know any president would have made any other decision, if you had invaded and if you sent thousands or hundreds of thousands of americans to their death or grievous injury, later it worked to, that you had access to a weapon that could have ended the war in a flash and you said i'm not going to use it, i don't know that any president could have faced that or would have wanted to face that. i leave it to others as to whether it was the moral thing to do or not but it was a realistic practical matter, think truman had any choice. >> i think you're right. it is a catch-22 at the time. chris, one of the ways it feels you take the reader into the

room is mature you got, it was just excellent and i wonder, what your core sources as it relates to trump? >> i wonder if you're doing this as a commercial. [laughter] >> maybe a little bit. after i read all of the histories, that are very good, you want more so where did i go? i went to the truman library in independence missouri and i spent a few days there, i'm sure many scholars have with reagan, and it was the diaries for the treasure. i often think to myself as i covered reagan in the 80s, not directly because i spent six years in the white house press corps but as a cover trump now, what are they thinking in that

moment? was going on in their mind? now we have access to reagan's diaries and a much better sense of that. truman's diaries were terrific, he was a very good diary keeper as was president reagan and a very good writer. he said a lot of things in the diaries they give you the inner conversation, one thing i found interesting is -- and it's different and i think most people's perception of truman because he famously is thought of as this very decisive man, he made a decision and never look back on it. he never looked back on this, he defended it and said i could do it again. as he is making the decision in germany at a summit conference with churchill and stalin in july 45, he was really struggling with his decision, he is having trouble sleeping at night, he complained of fierce

headaches which he had whenever he was under stress in his career and in his diary, he keeps talking about this terrible weapon describes it in apocalyptic terms, the fire destruction prophecies in the bible. he made the decision and he never looked back but this was an enormous decision and he gave all the weight and inner turmoil and struggling that i think he should have, he wrestled with the. >> tough job to be a president. talk to us about -- i'm sure there's been extensive books written about him. what a man. renaissance figure and a genius. >> absolutely. i have dozen languages spoke, learned sand script so he could

read buddhist writing, fabulously brilliant as a physicist and people have no question about whether he would have any executive skills at all in a very skilled administrator. a scientific director at los alamos and one of the things he had to juggle was had federal gross, this bulldozer of a man and a military man and he had all of these scientists who rebuild at the idea of deadlines and military order and he kind of had to keep both of those things going. we talk about second fonts, another one of these great nuggets in the book is after the

bombing and after the war ends, truman never looks back. he asked about it for the rest of his life and he keeps saying he had to make the decision, it ended the war and if i had to make the call, i'd do it again. all of the people on the flight crew said the same thing. it ended the war, military men and this was the way to defeat the enemy who did have second will albert einstein started the whole manhattan project in 1939 when he writes a letter to roosevelt and what his concern is and a concern a lot of the german refugees left germany and are now in the west in england for the u.s., they were concerned the nazis would get the atomic weapon before the u.s. did and god for bid adolf hitler had a monopoly in the most, first true weapon of mass destruction. so about a month after the explosion, he comes to the white house and sit down with truman and he's just wracked with

second thoughts and he says mr. president, i have these terrible regrets, i feel i have blood on my hand. truman says don't worry about it, i gave the order, i've got the blood on my hands. she finished the conversation, she leaves instruments says to his staff, and never will to see that some of us -- in my office again. >> it was such a moment. you also tell stories i had not heard before and i want you to tell the whole story, it's with respect to the new york times and the opportunity he had in this project and how that turned out. >> again, you have good days and bad days, this was a good day. william leonard lawrence was a

science reporter for the new york times and he won a pulitzer prize with a group of other people and 37 for writing an article on a scientific project and gross, this military man but he also thinks to himself, this is going to be, it all works out, an immense story and i want that story told right. this is another example of the difference between the unity of that time and what we have today so this military general walks into the new york times and goes to see the editor and he says i would like -- he knows about lawrence, i would like to get william lawrence and i'd like you to detach him and i'd like to to disappear off the face of the earth and i want him to go inside, is going to get the greatest story, and trying to

remember, i don't think he told the editor what the story was, lawrence but he basically -- the editor said okay, can you imagine that today? lawrence told him he said you're going to have the greatest story of all time but you're not going to be able to tell it until we tell you you can. any news been worth a set would go back but the idea of this great story, he then did it. this brought inside and hung out at los alamos and he was there when they tested the bomb july 16 and he had a genius and "at great lengths, some of the dispatches he wrote, none of which appeared until after the bomb exploded and truman

announced the whole project but his writing was fantastic and he came up with the phrase, the atomic days, written by william lawrence so he's there for all the testing and i wish my writing were as good as his butt you get to read some of his in the book and then he left the island. he's there with the crews, he's not allowed on the first flight because it's obvious that the first flight and they had 12 men and they want going to spare an extra seat but he does end up going on the second flight, said he's there and describes a first-person witness that that nation of the second atomic bomb in warfare. he's a great character and it's a delight to read, think about how you describe the atomic bomb blast, how do you describe

seeing an atomic bomb take out the city? he does it masterfully. >> the surprising thing, it's almost like a postscript he wrote about, there was a movement years later for a pulitzer surprise in the new york times because of the arrangement made at the time. it is an interesting story. >> what happened was during that period of time goes behind the scenes, is on the government payroll so -- and again, was a different relationship in terms of people, media, the country, those more of a sense of we are in this together that has obviously ended so i think in the 50s, maybe the 60s they went to the times and said is

basically writing press release, he should get back to pulitzer. williams lawrence did not. >> rightly so, i think. there's a big player you mentioned, maybe the only one but i didn't know this is a piece of history but in german, a scientist on the manhattan project turned out to be a russian spy. if you could tell that story. >> weekly. one of the big issues were churchill and truman, the british and u.s. have been involved in this all along together and now truman so when the bomb explodes, they get word

almost at the same time but one of the things they discuss is, when we tell stalin? stalin doesn't know anything about this project, or so they think. the decision is, we don't want to tell him too early or too much but if we don't tell him anything, is going to present it will create more problems. they are already having major problems between russia on the one side and the u.s. and britain on the other because russia came in from the east and taken over eastern europe and they're not going to give it up so late in the conference after one of the sessions, truman goes to stalin to tell him about it. he doesn't even bring a translator, he uses the russian translator, truman says, want to let you know we have an enormous

indescribably powerful weapon we've developed and stolen says something basically, i hope you've put to good use with the enemy and that's it and he turned away. truman is dumbfounded. he doesn't ask a question? churchill comes up to him and says, he wasn't there but he can see as a short conversation what happened. he said i don't know, i told him he didn't seem interested. truman's russian translator, but the russian but the american who served as the translator is wondering whether the translator translated properly. the truth is, stalin was interested, he just wasn't surprised because there was this german scientist who had gone to britain and ended up in the u.s. but he had been a member of the german communist party because he saw the communist party as being the only force in germany

that was resistant to hitler. he leaves and he's in the u.s. and because he is a brilliant scientist, is working the manhattan project but his loyalty is still communism so he gives a courier named raymond all kinds of information that goes back to the russians and the postscript is later that night, stalin and the foreign minister end up in the russian compound together and somebody overhears them having a conversation in which discussing the fact that truman told them they have the bomb and the bomb corpse stolen says i guess we need to get going. a historian would later say at 7:25 p.m. that night is when the nuclear arms race between russia and the u.s. officially began.

>> what a moment. well, you have another book and you? it seems like you must because it seems you really enjoy this, it has turned into a best-selling book. what's your next one? do have one in mind? >> one of the thoughts i had was to not only do all the things i said to create a historical thriller but to replicate it so when i came up with the countdown idea instead of telling the history but we are going to count down the days, i thought we can do countdown 1945, caps on whatever. i have a couple of ideas, i haven't settled on one yet but as i said, there ups and downs, highs and lows but there are enough upset. one of them, not getting the chance to talk to you about this book but there will be another

countdown. >> i can't wait to read, you get a hold of her career. just wonderful to see the work you've done and thanks so much for joining us. best of luck as you do this book tour virtually around the world. >> the virus will end and i will be at one of my favorite places in the world, the reagan library many times including with missus reagan when she was still alive and i look forward to coming and talking to all of you folks in person. >> thanks. you are welcome anytime. >> thank you for joining us for today's programming event. we hope this conversation has inspired you to show you what

you've learned with your family and friends and you will join us again for an upcoming event. >> all great change in america begins at the dinner table. tomorrow night in the kitchen i hope the talking begins and children, your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an american. that would be a very american thing to do. >> we can accomplish these great things and so much more. all we need to do start leaving in ourselves and in our country again. start believing. >> tonight is the final night of the republican national convention. president donald trump will deliver his acceptance speech with introductions speeches by rudy giuliani, ivanka trump and mitch mcconnell. watch the republican national convention the beginning 8:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. listen with the c-span radio app live streaming online.

our e-mail newsletter word for word office a a synopsis of the event. sign up at c-span.org/connect. coming up shortly, texas governor will give an update on the damage caused by hurricane laura and his live coverage here on c-span2. >> we are opening up the phoneh lines to get your top issue and campaign 2020 if you're supporting the president or joee biden. if you're undecided or third-party candidate. we will get to your calls in a minute but joining us on the boat is mike johnson of louisiana. you were expected to be in washington for the president's speech but you're staying there because of the hurricane. what's the latest on the ground? >> you may be able to hear the heavy winds in the w background

through the window here, we stayed here in the district because this is a historical event for us, is being registered, we are being told it could be the worst hurricane that ever hit our state and it's pretty massive. the damage it wide spread, but god is spread grace, we don't have any fatalities. this is a big one. we prepare for it as b best we could but there will be damage and things to recover from first quite some time. >> has the district responding? >> i always say, we are tough and resilient people and we do disaster recovery very well. w said we have so much experience with that but this was extraordinary. yesterday called the hurricane center and they projected yesterday we have thousands upon thousands of businesses destroyed in our area today and because they were measuring, we issued operation