Curtis LeMay

James M. Scott's "Black Snow" Traces the Line from Tokyo to Hiroshima

by James Thornton Harris

"LeMay’s operation really served as an important trial balloon to see how the American public would respond to the mass killing of enemy civilians.... To the surprise of many in Washington, however, the American public voiced no real objection."

Narrative Napalm: Malcolm Gladwell's Apologia for American Butchery

by Noah Kulwin

Reviewer Noah Kulwin argues Malcolm Gladwell's book on the rise of American air power misrepresents the military history of World War II, wrongly elevates Curtis LeMay to the status of a heroic genius, and blithely passes over the vast carnage of incendiary and atomic bombings. 

Malcolm Gladwell on the Hard Decisions of War

by Thomas E. Ricks

Malcolm Gladwell's new study of the US Air Force unexpectedly rehabilitates the image of General Curtis LeMay. 

Power to Rule the Skies: A Forgotten Innovator of the Strategic Air Command

by Brent D. Ziarnick

General Thomas S. Power should emerge from the shadow of his mentor Curtis LeMay as a leader of the United States Strategic Air Command at the critical moment in the dawn of the Cold War. 

Opinion: 75 Years On, Remember Hiroshima And Nagasaki. But Remember Toyama Too

by Cary Karacas and David Fedman

AAF officials commonly used sanitizing language to mask the fact that they were targeting entire cities for destruction. Press releases described attacks not on cities, but on "industrial urban areas." Tactical reports set their sights not on densely populated neighborhoods, but on "worker housing."

‘We Hated What We Were Doing’: Veterans Recall Firebombing Japan

American airmen who took part in the 1945 firebombing missions grapple with the particular horror they witnessed being inflicted on those below.