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 Curtis LeMay - Definition 

General Curtis E. LeMay

Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 - October 3, 1990) was a General in the United States Air Force. He is credited with creating an effective systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific Theatre of World War II and later reorganizing the Strategic Air Command as a military arm for conducting nuclear war. However, he was also characterized by his opponents as a belligerent warmonger whose aggressiveness threatened to enflame tense international political situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis into war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Contents
1 Biography
2 Quotes
3 Works
4 References
5 External links

Biography

Born in Columbus, Ohio, he was educated in Columbus and at Ohio State University in civil engineering before joining the new Air Corps in 1928 through the ROTC. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1930. He transferred to bomber aircraft in 1937 and soon demonstrated excellent abilities. His severe and demanding character earned him the nickname "Iron Ass". At the outbreak of World War II he was a group commander in the 8th Air Force. By early 1942 he was a lieutenant colonel and directed the 305th Group into action over Europe. He was given command of the 3rd Bombardment Division in late 1942 and in July 1944 he transferred to Pacific operations. He was promoted to major general and directed the 21st Bomber Command, heading B-29 operations including the massive incendiary attacks on over sixty Japanese cities, such as Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945 during which around 100,000 people were killed. The Japanese nicknamed him "brutal LeMay" (鬼畜ルメイ).

Post-war he was briefly transferred to The Pentagon as Deputy Chief of Air Staff for Research & Development. In 1947 he returned to Europe as commander of USAF Europe, heading operations for the Berlin Airlift in 1948. He was back in the US by 1949 to replace George Kenney in command of the Strategic Air Command. He headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet-engined force. He was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961 when he was made Chief of Staff on the retirement of Thomas White.

He was not a success as Chief of Staff; he was a belligerent and totally committed anti-Communist and clashed repeatedly with more flexible minds, such as Robert McNamara, Eugene Zuckert, and General Maxwell Taylor. LeMay lost a number of significant appropriation battles (for Skybolt ALBM, the F-111, and the B-52 replacement, the XB-70.) He also lost in his desire for a much more vigorous engagement in the Vietnam War. The quote "we should bomb Vietnam back into the stone age" is often attributed to him. His passion for promoting strategic air campaigns over tactical strike and ground support operations did come to be reflected in the Air Force, which became disproportionally strong in favour of strategic bombing operations during his tenure. Area bombardment of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia led to the deaths and maimings of up to hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians during the wars in those countries.

LeMay retired in February 1965 and seemed to be headed for a potential political career. His highest accomplishment in politics was to be selected as the vice presidential candidate to segregationist George Wallace in 1968.

The character of General Buck Turgidson, a warmongering hawk who, rather than help avert a imminent nuclear war, willingly proposes using the crisis to commit to a full preemptive strike that would cause the deaths of millions with an amoral smile, played by actor George C. Scott in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, is said to be based on LeMay, as was General Scott in the 1963 movie 7 Days In May.

Quotes

  • "Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier." (on the morality of the firebombing campaign [1] (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX61.html))
  • "I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them." -- 3 October, 1968
  • "If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting."
  • "My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to drawn in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the stone age." (Mission With LeMay: My Story, 1965; many years later LeMay would claim that this was his ghost writer's overwriting)
  • "I'd like to see a more aggressive attitude on the part of the United States. That doesn't mean launching an immediate preventive war. ... Native analysts may look sadly back from the future on that period when we had the atomic bomb and the Russians didn't... That was the era when we might have destroyed Russia completely and not even skinned our elbows doing it.... China has the bomb... Sometime in the future--25, 50, 75 years hence--what will the situation be like then? By that time the Chinese will have the capability of delivery too... That's the reason some schools of thinking don't rule out a destruction of the Chinese military potential before the situation grows worse than it is today. It's bad enough now." (Mission with LeMay: My Story, 1965)

Works

References

External links

ja:カーチス・ルメイ de:Curtis E. LeMay




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