Curtis LeMay
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Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a General in the United States Air Force and the vice presidential running mate of independent candidate George C. Wallace in 1968.
He is credited with designing and implementing an effective systematic strategic bombing campaign in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. After the war, he headed the Berlin airlift, then reorganized the Strategic Air Command into an effective means of conducting nuclear war.
Others, however, characterized him as a belligerent warmonger (even nicknaming him "Bombs Away LeMay") whose aggressiveness threatened to inflame tense Cold War situations (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis) into open war between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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Biography
Early life and career
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, he studied civil engineering at Ohio State University. He joined the Air Corps in 1928 and became an officer through the ROTC. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1930. He married Helen E. Maitland (died 1994) on the 9th of June 1934 with whom he had one child - Patricia Jane LeMay Lodge.
He transferred to bomber aircraft in 1937 and soon demonstrated his abilities. When his crews were not flying missions they were being subjected to his relentless training as he believed that training was the key to saving their lives. The men called him "Iron Ass" because he demanded so much but he was immensely respected.
One possibly apocryphal story has it that he approached a fully-fueled bomber with his ever-present cigar stuck firmly between his lips. When asked by a guard to put it out as it might ignite the fuel, LeMay growled, "It wouldn't dare."
World War II
Image:B-29s dropping bombs.jpg
At the outbreak of World War II LeMay was a lieutenant colonel and commander of the 305th Bomb Group. He took that B-17 unit to England in October, 1942, as part of the Eighth Air Force and led it in combat until May, 1943, notably helping to develop the combat box formation. He led the 4th Bombardment Wing, and was its first commander when it was reorganized into the 3rd Bomb Division in September, 1943. He often demonstrated his courage by personally leading dangerous missions, including the Regensburg portion of the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission of August 17, 1943. In that mission he led 146 B-17s beyond the range of escorting fighters to Regensburg, Germany, and after bombing, continued on to bases in North Africa, losing 24 bombers in the process.
The heavy losses in veteran crews on this and subsequent deep penetration missions in the autumn of 1943 led the Eighth Air Force to limit missions to targets within escort range until the employment of the P-51 Mustang fighter in January, 1944.
In July 1944 LeMay transferred to the Pacific Theater. He was promoted to major general and directed first the XX Bomber Command and then the XXI Bomber Command in India.
LeMay soon concluded that his bombers were dropping their bombs near their targets only 5% of the time, and that losses of aircraft and crews were unsustainably high. LeMay became convinced that continuing high-altitude, precision bombing would be ineffective, given the usual cloudy weather over Japan. He switched to low-altitude, incendiary attacks on Japanese cities. Precision bombing was conducted only when weather permitted it.
LeMay commanded B-29 operations against Japan, including the massive incendiary attacks on sixty four Japanese cities. This included the firebombing of Tokyo on March 9 - March 10, 1945. For this first attack LeMay removed the armaments on 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with firebomb clusters and ordered the bombers out at 5 - 9,000 feet over Tokyo. The first planes arrived over Tokyo just after midnight on March 10. In a three hour period they dropped 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs killing more than 100,000 civilians and incinerating 16 square miles of the city.
Precise figures are not available but the firebombing and nuclear bombing campaign against Japan, directed by LeMay between March 1945 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945, may have killed more than one million Japanese civilians. Official estimates from the United States Strategic Bombing Survey put the figures at 330,000 people killed, 476,000 injured, 8.5 million people made homeless and 2.5 million buildings destroyed. Nearly half the built-up areas of sixty-four cities were totally destroyed.
"There are no innocent civilians, so it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders." The New York Times reported at the time, "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29's of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day the attack will have served its purpose."
LeMay referred to his nighttime incendiary attacks as "fire jobs." The Japanese nicknamed him "brutal LeMay" (鬼畜ルメイ). LeMay was quite aware of both the brutality of his actions and the Japanese opinion of him - he once remarked that had the U.S. lost the war, he fully expected to be tried for war crimes. However, he argued that it was his duty to carry out the attacks.
Presidents Roosevelt and Truman justified these tactics by referring to an estimate that one million American troops would be killed if Japan had to be invaded. Additionally, the Japanese had decentralized 90% of their war-related industry into small workshops in civilian districts, which (according to the rationale) made these areas legitimate military targets.
In addition, LeMay oversaw Operation Starvation, an aerial mining operation against Japanese waterways and ports which disrupted the Japanese shipping and food distribution logistics.
Cold War
After World War II, LeMay 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. Under LeMay's direction, C-54 cargo planes that could each carry 10 tons of cargo began supplying the city on July 1. By the fall the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day. The airlift went on for 11 months - 213,000 flights that brought in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. The Soviets gave up and opened up the land corridors to the West.
In 1949, he returned to the U.S. to head the Strategic Air Command, replacing Gen. George Kenney. When he took over SAC, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed B-29 groups left over from World War II. Less than half of the available aircraft were operational, and the crews were undertrained. When he ordered a mock bombing exercise on Dayton, Ohio, most bombers missed their targets by one mile or more.
He headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into a modern, efficient, all-jet force. Along the way, he acquired a large fleet of new bombers, established a vast aerial refueling system, started many new units and bases, began missile development, and established a strict command and control system. He was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961 when he was made the fifth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on the retirement of Thomas White.
He was not a success as Chief of Staff; he clashed repeatedly with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Maxwell Taylor. LeMay was a belligerent and totally committed anti-Communist. His first war plan, drawn up in 1949, proposed delivering "the entire stockpile of atomic bombs in a single massive attack" - dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities within 30 days.
LeMay lost significant appropriation battles (for Skybolt ALBM, and the B-52 replacement, the XB-70.) His wish for a much more vigorous prosecution of an air campaign in the Vietnam War (the quotation "we should bomb Vietnam back into the Stone Age" is often attributed to him) did not come true until the United States was in the final stages of military withdrawal from the conflict. His belief in the efficacy of strategic air campaigns over tactical strikes and ground support operations became Air Force policy during his tenure as Chief of Staff. Strategic bombing of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia led to significant civilian casualties during the war in Southeast Asia without seriously affecting the final outcome.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed with President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear sites in Cuba, even though he himself estimated that his planes could take out only about 90 percent of these sites (post-crisis analysis hypothesized that such attacks would have missed significantly more missiles than that). He opposed the naval blockade, and after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Russians agreed to withdraw.
Post-military
Due to his unrelenting militarism and what was widely perceived as his hostility to the McNamara civilian leadership team at the Pentagon, LeMay was essentially forced into retirement in February 1965, and seemed headed for a political career. His highest political accomplishment was his selection as the Vice Presidential candidate on segregationist George Wallace's 1968 American Independent Party ticket. (Interestingly, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II.) When Wallace announced his selection in October 1968, LeMay opined that he, unlike many Americans, clearly did not fear using nuclear weapons. His saber-rattling did not help the Wallace campaign.
He was honored by several countries, receiving the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the French Legion of Honor and the Silver Star. On December 7, 1964 the Japanese government conferred on him the First Order of Merit with the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun. He was elected to the Alfalfa Club in 1957 and he served as a general for seventeen years.
He is buried in the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery at Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Awards and Decorations
LeMay received recognition for his work from thirteen countries, receiving twenty two medals and decorations.
- United States:
- Distinguished Service Cross
- Distinguished Service Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters
- Silver Star
- Distinguished Flying Cross with 2 oak leaf clusters
- Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters
- Distinguished Unit Citation with 1 oak leaf cluster
- American Defense Service Medal
- American Campaign Medal
- European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 service stars
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 4 service stars
- World War II Victory Medal
- Army of Occupation Medal with the Berlin Airlift emblem
- Medal for Humane Action
- National Defense Service Medal
- Argentina – Order of Aeronautical Merit -- Grades of Grand Official and Grand Cross
- Belgium – Croix de Guerre with Palm
- Brazil – Order of the Southern Cross and Order of Aeronautical Merit
- Chile – Order of Merit and Medalla Militar de Primera Clase
- Ecuador – Order of Aeronautical Merit (Knight Commander)
- France – Legion of Honor Degree of Commander and Croix de Guerre with Palm
- Great Britain – Distinguished Flying Cross
- Japan – The First Class of the Order of the Rising Sun (Presented Dec. 7 1964)
- Morocco – Oissam Alaouite
- Sweden – Commander of the Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword
- Uruguay – Aviador Militar Honoris Causa (Piloto Commandante)
- U.S.S.R – Order of Patriotic War -- 1st Degree
Works
Books
- (with MacKinlay Kantor) Mission with LeMay: My Story (Doubleday, 1965) ISBN B00005WGR2
- (with Dale O. Smith) America is in Danger (Funk & Wagnalls, 1968) ISBN B00005VCVX
- (with Bill Yenne) Superfortress: The Story of the B-29 and American Air Power (McGraw-Hill, 1988) ISBN 0070371601
Film
As Himself
- The Last Bomb (Documentary, 1945)
- In the Year of the Pig (Documentary, 1968)
- The World at War (Documentary TV Series, 1974)
- Race for the Superbomb (Documentary, 1999)
- JFK (Movie, 1991; featured in archival footage)
- Roots of the Cuban Missile Crisis (Documentary, 2001)
- The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Documentary, 2003)
- DC3: Ans Sista Resa (Documentary, 2004)
As Based on Him
- Strategic Air Command (character of General Ennis C. Hawkes, played by actor Frank Lovejoy) (Movie, 1955)
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (character of General Buck Turgidson, played by actor George C. Scott) (Movie, 1964)
- Thirteen Days (character of General LeMay, played by actor Kevin Conway) (Movie, 2003)
References
- Thomas M. Coffey, 1986. Iron Eagle: The Turbulent Life of General Curtis LeMay. Random House. ISBN 0517551888.
- Robert S. McNamara, 1995. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Vintage Press. ISBN 0679767495. (See pages 114-115).
- Albert Atkins, 2001. Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris and General Curtis E. Lemay: A Comparative Analytical Biography. AuthorHouse. ISBN 0759659400.
- Alfonso A. Narvez. "Gen. Curtis LeMay, an Architect of Strategic Air Power, Dies at 83". The New York Times. October 2, 1990.
- Graham Allison. Essence of Decision:Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971 – updated 2nd edition, 1999). Longman. ISBN 0321013492.
- Moscow, Warren. "City’s Heart Gone." The New York Times. 11 Mar. 1945: 1, 13.
- Curtis E. LeMay, Awards and Decorations http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/afp/awardcl.htm
External links
- Air Force Magazine bio of LeMay, March 1998
- Bio from American Airpower Biography: A Survey of the Field by Colonel Phillip S. Meilinger, USAF
- Richard Rhodes on: General Curtis LeMay, Head of Strategic Air Command
- Richard Rhodes on: LeMay's Vision of War
- Annotated bibliography of Curtis LeMay from the Alsos Digital Library
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