Posted on 12/25/2012 2:03:49 PM PST by virgil283
"...I was surprised to find out that LeMay wasn’t at all the man I thought he was … and I didn’t think he got a fair shake in history. Here is a man who has been marginalized and even vilified as this mad bomber yearning for a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. Hollywood helped solidify that negative image with Dr. Strangelove ..and he became a favorite target for journalists beginning in the 1960s. In truth, the real LeMay couldn’t have been further from the crazy brute that he’s been made out to be. He was a sober, strategic realist, who cared deeply for the men who served under him and for the country he defended. LeMay was perhaps the most brilliant military strategist this nation has ever produced – not my words but those of the late Robert S. McNamara. And LeMay was brave. He put his own life at risk insisting on flying the lead bomber on every dangerous mission over Europe. He was one of the most influential factors in our victory in the Pacific Theater. And if that weren’t enough, LeMay had a third act that equaled the first two, helping to win the Cold War by turning the Strategic Air Command into the most efficient and deadliest military force in history that kept the Soviets in check for decades. .... ..On his very first mission, LeMay ordered everyone to fly straight in with no deviation so they could hit the targets. The men were horrified. One pilot stood up at the pre-flight briefing and said they’d all be slaughtered. LeMay looked straight at him and, showing the most brilliant form of leadership, simply said: “No, I think we can take it and to prove it, I’ll fly the lead plane.”
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
A very telling statement by the General. As another poster said, it was the left that painted Lemay and all military personnel as bloodthirsty tyrants or automatons.
This is not quite true. He certainly did lead dangerous missions, including the August, 1943 raid to Regensburg. But, he did not lead all. Group commanders in the 8th Air Force took their turn as Command Pilot leading the group or air division on specific missions. They shared this duty with the other senior officers in the Group. LeMay may have picked the toughest missions for himself, but he did what his fellow group commanders were doing. He led a few missions after being promoted to Brigadier General and becoming CG of the 3d Air Division. But, at some point, he was grounded because of his knowledge of the compromised Enigma codes. This restriction applied to all who had such knowledge as the Allies could not risk their falling into enemy hands.
The restriction continued when LeMay went to the 30th AF, although he made have sneaked on a few missions. LeMay was courageous, no doubt, but so were countless other general officers. When LeMay began his combat duty in 1943, the Navy had lost several admirals in surface actions in the South Pacific. Three Army generals had been wounded in fierce combat at Buna in New Guinea. In World War II, generals who led from the front were commonplace.
Thanks for putting this one up. I never thought much about LeMay. Now I must find a good biography and some more.
While the Libs may vilify him for his war time strategy, and make movies about Jack D Ripper, it was LeMay’s vice President position on George Wallace’s Presidential bid in 1968 that made them really foam at the mouth.
If you want to read about Taylor, Lemay and the Joint Chiefs leading up to our decisions to get more involved in Vietnam, read Dereliction of Duty by H. McMaster. A great book about how that idiot McNamara and Johnson manipulated and divided the JCS to get what it wanted in the runup to Vietnam. BTW, as pointed out in the book, Lemay and the Marine Commandant (Wallace Green) were of the same mind. Bomb North Vietnam back into the stone age or get out of Vietnam all together. No half stepping.
You will also find out in the book that Lemay’s tour as chief of the Air Force was extended a year not because Johnson liked him. But because he was afraid Lemay as a civilian would be criticizing Johnson concerning Vietnam while Johnson was running for the 1964 Presidential election. Lemay as a good military man would never criticize his commander in chief while in uniform.
Thanks. That's where I got the story about LeMay and the cigars he used to irritate Johnson's special adviser Taylor. I read it when it was published and gave it to a retired Navy guy.
It was a great book. That's a fact.
RE: "Lemay as a good military man would never criticize his commander in chief while in uniform."
Nowadays IMO it's the duty of the military to take sides. . . .
LeMay disgraced himself in 1968 by running as the VP candidate of racist George Wallace.
Yes, LeMay was a strong voice for SAC .... but maybe too strong.
In the early 50s, he constantly belittled the idea of using unmanned missiles for long-distance delivery of nuclear weapons, making sure that his SAC got most of the military funding & respect. As a result, US missile development fell well behind the Soviets, who had no problem recognizing the potential of the ICBM. (What’s that quote about old generals always stuck in fighting the last war’s way?)
Von Braun himself admitted that the US could have put a satellite in orbit as early as 1955 - two years ahead of Sputnik - had missile research received the proper funding and recognition. And since those military missiles formed the basis of the space program, the US started from behind and were always playing “catch-up” to the USSR until Apollo - thanks to people like Gen. Curtis LeMay.
If you read the article, then you'd find that he did it to help Nixon defeat the Rats.
You must be relying on public school teaching and MSM news for that. Wallace was a populist and racial moderate of that time. He would have been POTUS if he had not been shot. He served under LeMay during the war. I was born and raised on and around a SAC base. Everyone thought LeMay was top notch.
I read that book last year about him. Very capable and competent.
He also bolstered the self-defense capabilities of our bomber groups and saved many lives by designing the famous Box Formation, which you can see in any documentary film or movie about the Air Corps.
The reason for the incendiary bombing of Tokyo was based on the fact that Tokyo was one huge decentralized cottage defense plant. Every highly flammable shack in town harbored some piece of equipment for making war materiel, from bullets to boots to bandages, infinitely too many to be targeted independently. How many Tokyo inhabitants were true civilians at all is a highly problematic semantic issue which detractors prefer to overlook.
“Lemay understood good and evil, and acted accordingly.”
Probably the most relevant point of the last 40 years. And that distinction seems lost on everyone today, including Republicans.
article about General Lemay
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