I recall reading, but don’t remember where, that during the Cuban missile crisis, Air Force Gen. Curtis (“Nuke 'em till they glow”)LeMay sent squadrons of B-52’s toward the USSR with the intent of provoking a reaction. Seemed too wild to believe at the time, even though LeMay was a loathesome little warmonger. Anyone know more?
This is the quote that I associate with Curtis LeMay. He supposedly said this in connection with the bombing campaign in Southeast Asia. He may have made the statement you mention, but I don’t recall ever hearing it attributed to him. As far as the Cuban Missile Crisis goes, I think it would have been unnecessary for LeMay to do this - we were already in a ‘ready-for-war’ state. In those dark days, we had B-52s in the air at all times that were in a strategic position to overfly the USSR and release nuclear weapons. Several movies were made about this situation (MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction), but the most moving may have been the black comedy, “Dr. Strangelove (or How I Learned To Love The Bomb”).
I can’t speak to this except to say that as head of the Strategic Air Command, LeMay would have had control over the B-52s. But when you say that he sent a flight toward Russia, do you mean he put them in the air, or he told them to go past their Fail Safe points? The former would be perfectly normal during a crisis, the latter would be highly unlikely, since the President, not the head of SAC, controlled the operational codes that could give that order.
Any Cuban Missile Crisis buffs out there with any details?
During the Cold War, the US often sent B52s toward the USSR. That was a standard part of the US defense strategy. You can not hide the fact that B52s are taking off. A simple phone call from a spy would give the Soviets plenty of warning. By regularly sending planes towards the USSR, you reduce the effective warning time. The Soviets would know if it is an attack until after the B52s past their turn around point.
AFAIK the General did not try to start a war. The military is controlled by the President. IF the President ordered the General not to send the planes, and the General sent them anyway [I don’t think he did], then you can say the General tried to start a war. IF he sent the planes, as allowed by the President, then it is the President who is trying to start a war.
I’m not a huge fan of LeMay in several areas, but this
has more to do with the “Bomb them back to the stone age” quote that appeared in his autobiography than it has anything to do with LeMay’s actual beliefs or personality.
LeMay was a professional soldier who worked very hard (and often unsuccessfully) to prepare the U.S. for air war between WWI and WWII. When the WWII came, he was the strongest proponent of the daylight specific-target raids that were harder on U.S. aircrews than on civilian populations. His British counterpart, “Bomber” Harris, had already concluded that daylight raids were too dangerous and that mass bombings of cities was simply the way to go. (In his defense, Harris did not (initially) have the Norden bombsight and the Germans had already begun the pattern of indiscriminate night-time bombing.)
As a man who had spent his entire life preparing for unimaginable war (and having accurately predicted that it would be unimaginable), his position was one of building the finest military machine and doing what it took to win. Faced with the uncertain goal of the Vietnam conflict and the arbitrary restrictions placed on the military, LeMay had trouble dealing with a “limited” war and the surprising emergence of the Peace Movement. His speeches and writings of that period reflect his consternation at these “new” developments.
His actual “statement” in his autobiography, Mission With LeMay, was in answer to the rhetorical question “How do you deal with North Vietnam?” He replied:
Not a politic statement depending on your viewpoint, but hardly the “Let’s bomb them back to the stone age.” snarled out from alongside his cigar that he is usually portrayed as having said. I have also seen (though I cannot cite it) that the statement was inserted by his ghost writer for color, and that his actual statement was more carefully worded.
I do not think that LeMay is above criticism. When he moved from the Atlantic to the Pacific Theatre, he looked over the Japanese dispersed-industry situation and decided that indiscriminate area bombing was OK. There are other decisions for which he can also be criticized. It is important to remember, however, that he had predicted the disaster of early WWII and seen it come to fruition because he and others had been ignored. There is no information that I have seen (outside 1960’s anti-war fervor and propaganda) that indicates that he was in any way desirous of war. Provoking the U.S.S.R. seems out of character for him, from what I do know of him.
I don’t have any specific details to cite, but I recall hearing that LeMay felt that war between the US and USSR was inevitable, therefore we should attack the Soviets sooner rather than later, while we still had the edge in strategic weapons and before they could catch up.
tomndebb wrote:
Several nits to pick: LeMay wasn’t a professional soldier but got his commision through the ROTC. He was a 2nd lieutenant in 1930 and only a major in 1941. Spaatz and Arnold were the apostles of daylight precision bombing though LeMay had a lot to do with developing the tactics that made it a reality.
LeMay did play at brinksmanship while head of SAC. See Richard Rhodes’s “Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb”.
A lot of the safeguards in nuclear command and control are attributable to LeMay’s freelancing.
Andrew Warinner
Let’s not forget Curtis LeMay’s political highpoint; running for Vice President on George Wallace’s 1968 American Independent ticket.
Here’s a quick reference:
And that’s not all!
The complete text is here
Still looking for more sources. I know LeMay was accused of allowing S.A.C. to provoke the Soviet Union by overflying turnaround points more than once.
The Rhodes books about both the atomic and hydrogen bombs are superb…
I will do that; I was not aware that he had been playing those games.
(OTOH: I’m not sure how being a ROTC grad eliminates his professional status. What career did he ever hold outside the the USAAC/USAAF/USAF?)
My dad was a Military Policeman at the time of the Cuban Missle Crisis. When the crisis was solved, be was on a plane heading for Cuba. His unit was going to patrol the streets of Havana after the nuking and invasions had occured. Most people don’t know how close we came to war over that incident.
tomndebb wrote:
I guess it depends how one defines ‘professional’. To my mind, it implies something like the ‘regular Army’ career path: military academy followed by service. That’s not the career path that LeMay followed.
LeMay graduated from college and then joined Air Corps Reserve before getting a regular commision. See http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/afp/lemay.htm.
This page has more details (like the reason that LeMay went the reserve route was that he failed to get an appointment to West Point) but I can’t vouch for it.
His unconventional career path didn’t hinder his promotion, though.
Andrew Warinner
I dunno. He spent his college in ROTC. When he missed graduation he went directly to the National Guard, where he was commissioned, and wound up getting his wings before his 23d birthday in the service where he spent the rest of his adult life. He may not have followed the traditional path to get in, but I’m not sure what you could call him other than a professional soldier. It’s not as if he was drafted from a career elsewhere and just happened to make good once he got in.
(Probably too much time on this sidebar, anyway.)
It is rare to have to pick one of tomndebb’s nits, but this one warrants a comment.
Promotion during the interwar years was unbelievably slow. A perfect example was George Patton, who had to wait something like twenty years to reach the rank of full colonel, which he had been breveted as in the Great War. The situation worsened as the Depression encouraged officers to stay in the Army as long as possible in order to remain gainfully employed. When one also considers the hind-tit status of the Army Air Force at the time and the preferential treatment and promotion that “ring-knockers” received, and LeMay’s slow promotion doesn’t seem unusual at all.
It should also be noted that back then officers of modest rank often wielded disproportionately large influence and authority–even Billy Mitchell was only a Brigadier until posthumously promoted in 1946.
Shortly before the missile crises, Gen. LeMay had the Air Forces ICBM hard wired into his command structure. In effect, HE had the button. Gen. LeMay did not trust the government to respond in a timely matter (if at all) to a Soviet Attack.
Therefore, in answer to the question, I do not think LeMay wanted to start WWIII. Because he could have started and finished it, all by himself.
Was there a deliberate satire involved between LeMay and Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove, as there supposedly was between Edward Teller and Dr. Strangelove himself?
DHR
This was a bumper sticker from about the time of the Gulf War.