Curtis Lemay Essay

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Curtis LeMay

When I first embarked upon my research on Curtis LeMay, although I was aware of the general's distinguished war record, I also knew about his political reputation as a fire-breathing conservative. LeMay is infamous for inspiring the creation of a character in Doctor Strangelove and serving as the vice-presidential candidate of George Wallace when the pro-segregation governor ran for president. However, the reality of LeMay's life was considerably more complex and more nuanced than such caricatures would suggest. LeMay was instrumental in bringing about V-J Day and his aggressive bombing of Japan was not rooted in bloodthirstiness but a genuine desire to bring about a swift end to the war for all. Even LeMay's most famous quote, his assertion that the Vietnamese should be blown 'to kingdom come' was likely misinterpreted (what LeMay meant was that the U.S. had the power to easily defeat the Vietnamese with its firepower, but was not going about doing so in the correct fashion).

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LeMay did not have an idealistic or positive view of war, but this subtle point was often lost in the polarized political debates brewing in American during the 1960s. He believed in a strategy of total war like General Sherman because he thought that the idea of a moral war was an oxymoron. An army had to 'get in and get out' quickly, and a prolonged and unfocused strategy meant disaster. His belief system was underlined by a coherent philosophy, not madness, and his point-of-view regarding Vietnam is supported by many military historians. In….....

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