Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World

Not everything falls easily into a political camp, as the sordid history of the atomic bomb attests and as Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace demonstrates in this fast-paced book. His interviews with the few remaining witnesses offer a fresh look through a weathered window in time. Rather than focusing on an unwittingly produced bomb-grade radioactive material, the top-tier scientists find themselves torn between the excitement of new revolutionary discoveries and the blood-guilt associated with what those discoveries may mean in terns of destruction.

After the fall of Nazi Germany, international tensions grew between an unseasoned American President, British Prime Minister Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. Churchill lost the election just before the Potsdam Declaration was broadcast to Japan, and Stalin was gobbling up as much of Europe as he could. Wallace reminds us that nothing was certain: there were so many untested, unanswered questions about whether or not to even use the first weapon of mass destruction, and if so, how to deliver it to the enemy.

Peppered throughout the pages are photographs, some previously unpublished, and copies of letters that turned the tide of history. Well researched, beautifully concise, and exceptionally fast, this book will leave you wanting more.