Curtis LeMay was a great American.
Curtis LeMay was a great American.
This is a fantastic book and I cannot recommend it highly enough. My copy has been read by 4 people and all of them enjoyed it greatly.
VDH looks at the war unlike other authors from a macro scale for economics, resources, etc, rather than focusing on the battles and generals. I am a WWII history buff and I learned a lot and found many historical lessons that are applicable today for our national defense and our cold war with China.
Our “national defense” starts with our economic engine.
Fabulous video lecture series. Mrs. jimfree and I did that several months ago. Also a Ph.D. historian, she loves VDH’s depth and breadth of knowledge and easy delivery.
I have seen “The World At War” a couple of times. It is truly a great documentary. The only problem with it, and it’s a big problem, is that it should be called, “Europe At War”. It’s a very Eurocentric documentary.
Later
Great book, and yes...Curtis Lemay WAS a great American.
Interesting...General Lemay was known for his ever present cigar...but he did that initially to hide from others the fact that he had an attack of Bell’s Palsy in 1942, which would have kept him out of combat, so to hide it, he put a cigar in that side of his mouth that was problematic, and developed a stony face so he didn’t smile often or give long speeches, which would have given away the ailment.
Good read at the link. Makes we want to check out the book.
As was Harry Truman and Paul Tibbets and the many great Americans that made the hard decisions to win the war in the Pacific, not just fight it.
Revisionist history now vilifies them for their courage to make those decisions.
I saw VDH on tv and he was explaining the importance of the strategic bombing of Germany.
I had always considered it to be marginal at best.
The point he made was that the heavy bombers forced the Nazis to pull their most effective antitank weapon, the 88, from the Eastern Front to defend against our bombers.
This allowed the Russian tanks to survive longer and better support their Infantry.
An absolutely brilliant observation by VDH.
The BBC’s ‘’World At War’’ or ‘’How England Won The Second World War(With A Little Timely Assistance From The United States’’).Narrated by Sir Laurence Oliver.
Japan always suffered from a dysfunctional rivalry between its own Navy and Army. Tojo and the Army came to ultimate power because of their headstart success in Manchuria and China.
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Admiral Yamamoto strongly opposed allying with Germany and had deep reservations about war with the US, it was a long shot at best. Yamamoto spoke fluent English and had traveled widely through the US.
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He knew that our heartland was safe from bombing and Japan’s was not. Yamamoto often related his road trip across the US, where he drove for 4 days without seeing a break in the cornfields of the Midwest.
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He hoped we would negotiate after Pearl Harbor, but fundamentally misread American anger and determination because it was not an Asian concept.
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Japan’s lack of combined arms along with our industrial and agricultural might determined the outcome.
LeMay was a real legitimate American stalwart. But for him thousands of Americans in the euro and pacific would have died.
It is possible, had we had to take Japan that my Dad would have had a greatly shortened life. As would many other Americans. Lemay mused that he could have faced trial as a war criminal. Maybe, but he never would have been convicted.
Same war in this era—who knows?