Now that's a cool quote though given the description of this man and how he'd handle the crisis of Russia and Ukraine I'm pretty sure he'd just bomb and blast Russia to oblivion and make things worse then again in our times he'd be pretty hard getting permission for any plane for military action compared to when he was in charge.
LeMay was brutal? What about the Bataan Death March? What about Manchuria? Who attacked who at Pearl Harbor? The Japanese were fanatical when it came to fighting to the end. LeMay did not order the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Truman did. The US was going to bomb Japan into submission with or without Lemay. The Japanese can thank Tojo and his cronies for the suffering they received. General Homma was brutal to Americans too. So, it has been said a billion times before, War Is Hell!
Code3Forever Japan’s civilians had nothing to do with the war and no matter what the enemy does nothing makes it okay to purposefully target and kill civilians especially when Japan had already lost the war along with most of their military forces.
@@robertp457 the common people, the civilians, support japanese government actually. Don't forget that even during in war, Japan was at least a semi Democractic nation
I don’t deny the fact that he was a proponent of total war but I’m sure the Citizens of Nanjing would disagree with him being one of the worst of World War II
I lived thru that era . He was a hawk and a student of warfare. He may have been in charge but he still was GIVEN his marching orders by those above him. He didn't advocate Nukes in Vietnam as widely reported.... He just didn't rule out the use of anything in the U.S. Arsenal. BIG DIFFERENCE. Chest thumping and sabre rattling seemed to be his favorite pastime and everyone knew it. Just look at the world situation today and see others acting in the same way .......
"Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster. " [and] "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want. " [and finally] "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. " - William Tecumseh Sherman. LeMay must have read Sherman.
"In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action. What is often called ruthless. What may in many circumstances be only clarity; seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it. Directly, quickly, awake!" Captain Benjamin L. Willard, _Apocalypse Now_
@@ronmeier8850 Sorry Dr Butthead, I ddnt know this was history class. Thanks..It was MacArthur. Hey, why ddn't you know that? Armchair, know just enough to be a troll.
So often, I think the people who tell you war horror stories 10 minutes after you meet them are lying. Most people who really go through the nightmare want to go over it.
Combat vets talk to other combat vets, it's hard to explain or relate what you have seen to people that were not there. One generations hero is the next generations monster as this video shows well.
All I knew of his service was that he was a Navy CB and did underwater demolitions along with building a airstrip other than that he said nothing else. At his funeral, the 21 gun salute along with the bugle was the toughest part of it. To this day, I have a hard time with that in movies/tv shows. After this video that talks about Korea, I have a better understanding as to why he never spoke about it.
Both of my grandpas never spoke about it, either, not even to me, and I'm a veteran. Granted at least one grandpa ways thought of me as a little girl on his knee so he may have found it inappropriate or unfit for my ears.
I love the way the Brits paper over their own brutal ways. Bomber Harris made no bones that he was out to kill civilians. Lemay, like Wm Sherman understood that war is hell.
Yup! If you are going to trash someone as a bloodthirsty General, how about stepping up with someone from your home. Remember, the sun never set on the British empire? That was not done by just asking the other countries to come along and play with the UK. It was world wide dominance on a massive scale!
@@MontyDotharl Perspectives. Given the blood bath that Okinawa turned out to be, it's inevitable some who were lucky not to have to landed there would be thankful to those who made sure they didn't have to
AvoidTheCadaver there was no reason to attack Japan’s mainland since by that time their navy and Air Force were wiped out and they had very few military targets left to destroy. Specifically targeting and killing civilians is wrong no matter the people who claimed it was the only way. The people who claimed it was the only way were also the people who decided to purposefully kill civilians. Laws were put into place after WWII outlawing killing civilians on purpose or fell being careless.
What your missing here is that the Japanese were more than a match for the title of brute. The Island of Japan was densely packed and the war manufacturing were intertwined. The people were also were proud to die for the emperor. Beheadings of prisoners, the starvation of prisoner were all in a days work for the Japanese. The penchant to fight to the death is justification for the bombing and the use of the A-Bomb.
Your assessment of LeMay indicates your lack of understanding of the man and the times in which he fought in. Your use of your modern day prism regarding your sanctimonious morality only serves to underscore the misreading of the enemy and would have cost the lives of many more men. The bombing of Japan’s civilian populace was also predicated on the fact their war production efforts was decentralized meaning that in order to degrade their ability to fight the cities unfortunately had to be strategically bombarded- leading to high civilian casualties. If your going to comment on a man get to know the man!
@@trancemadmaz No, he killed plenty of Germans too. He originally commanded a Bomber Group based in the UK. He didn't transfer to the Pacific until the end of '44.
@@lenny5774 then his superiors would have to be murderers too since they authorized him. So you'd have to add to the list FDR, Gen George Marshall, Gen Henry Arnold, Gen Dwight Eisenhower, President Harry Truman, Gen Ira Eaker, Gen Jimmy Doolittle , and Gen Douglas MacArthur since were all his superiors at one time or another and gave him the go-ahead.
Given that Emperor Hirohito specifically referred to the atomic bomb when he explained the reason for surrendering to the United States, I don't understand how anyone can dispute that the dropping of the atomic bomb brought a quick close to the war with Japan.
This is true. People who try to explain away the "coincidence" that the Japanese surrendered within days of the atomic bombings, when the even more horrifying firestorm attacks on Tokyo only provoked more resistance, are ignoring the obvious. And in this case, the Japanese themselves, the ones who mattered, to a one all pointed at the atomic bombings as the reason for the surrender. Those who try to explain it away are making the mistake of thinking that admitting it is somehow endorsing the use of atomic weapons in the future. You're not going to prevent another use of nuclear weapons by pretending they didn't work when they quite obviously did. It just makes you look stupid. Strategic bombing, like any attack on noncombatats, whether at Nanking, Manila, or Dresden, or Tokyo, is morally indefensible and numerous facts and statistics of the war prove that it largely doesn't work. Month-to-month productivity of war materiel went UP in both Germany and Japan following large-scale strategic bombings. So it's a failed strategy that involves murdering women, elderly, children, en masse. The irony is that the only strategic bombings that actually worked, exactly as expected, were the two atomic bombings. In that aspect it could be argued that they were the only ones that were even remotely justified. All the rest of them were simply murder.
@@josephledux8598 Only problem with that this what resistance? They had no navy, no air, no oil, easily 50 years behind in technology, and already starving to death without any help. Just let them flounder on their island until they are forced to submit.
@@thekey1175 50 years behind in technology? Not sure where you got this from, but it's just not true. At the beginning of the war, the Mitsubishi Zero outclassed anything America had in the Pacific. You are also conveniently ignoring the fact that there were MULTIPLE campaigns continuing to rage at the same time Hirohito was surrendering, including the Phillipines and China. General Yamashita had some 40,000 soldiers still in Luzon the day Japan surrendered.
Wow...it is really clear that Simon does not know that LeMay was ordered to firebomb Japan by Hap Arnold...as was his predecessor Haywood Hansell. LeMay's only contribution to the whole thing was deciding to go in at low altitude.
I normally enjoy your Top Tenz, but you need to lay off the moralizing. General Lemay was ordered by General Hap Arnold to pursue a campaign of relentless bombing against Japanese and it's resources. Generals (whether Army Air Force, Army, or Marines) don't operate in a vacuum with their own little empire. They're micromanaged from up above and his bombing campaign was fully authorized by General's Arnold and Marshall as well as FDR and later Truman. He was put in charge because of his ability to get the job done. He was a superb organizer, leader, and one of the best Bomber Navigators and Pilots in the Army Air Force, even before the war. His focus on pilot training, aircraft maintenance, careful mission planning, and improved Search and Rescue reduced losses in his commands (both in the Europe earlier in the war and later in the Pacific). Prior to him taking over in the Pacific the Air Campaign had been bogged by mechanical issues with the B-29, a lackluster Command, a lack of launch and recovery sites for B-29's, and wasted bombing using high altitude bombing. We now know from the Bombing Studies that high altitude bombing was inaccurate and a waste of resources, especially in Japan. Lemay surmised that due to the fragile state of Japanese Structures and a depleted Air Force he could send Bombers on lower altitude runs using White Phosphorus and High Explosives to cause greater damage and it worked. Still the Army Air Force had the highest per capita losses of any Group in the US Forces in WWII from accidents and combat. As with Sherman or Grant, you needed a Commander who got the job done. Grant's nickname after Cold Harbor was the "Butcher" due to all the losses. Earlier Commanders like McClellan built the Army, but didn't have the stones to do the job. Lemay might have been bloodthirsty, but he got the job done. It was the same when he later helped set up Strategic Air Command. As for the A Bomb we can moralize about the decision for a hundred years, we weren't in the shoes of the men who had to make the decision to drop it. Plus, the Japanese were pretty damn bloodthirsty themselves as evidenced by their brutality towards the Chinese (and everyone else) and unwillingness to surrender at any time during the war. So did anyone expect towards the end, a sudden change of philosophy just because they were losing?
Soldier: "General LeMay, we have found an enemy position, what would you like us to do?" LeMay: "Bomb them." Soldier: "...Okay, how many bombs?" LeMay: " *Y e s* ."
Hogwash!! William Tecumseh Sherman said of war: "War is hell...War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." He also said: "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen and I say let us give them all they want." Lemay made some questionable decisions years later as in the Cuban missile crises but his B-29 fire bombing of Japanese cities forced Japan to surrender more than the two nuclear bombs did. We have not won a war since due to the lack of commitment to total victory by our politicians. I really hope that we see less and less of wars in the future. It only profits the military industrial complex as President Eisenhower warned.
Not bloodthirsty. Nor a monster. He wanted to win but was not involved in the decision to use the A-bomb, nor was he a huge fan of it, in the Pacific War.
"Death, destruction, disease, horror. That's what war is all about. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided.” -- James T. Kirk (captain, U.S.S. Enterprise).
Meetinghouse was carried out less than two weeks after the Manila Massacre in which Japanese troops deliberately killed tens of thousands of Filipinos who were American citizens at that time. Reprisal attacks are allowed under international law and the people of the United States at that time has zero patience with the idea that a foreign power could murder American servicemen at Pearl Harbor without a Declaration of War and then murder tens of thousands of Americans after years of brutal occupation without any Reprisal. There was no specific vote held, but had there been a Referendum the American voters would have overwhelmingly approved of LeMay's bombing of Japan. ;-)
An installment of TopTenz that actually left me disappointed. As several viewers have written before me, this was war, not a sporting event. There are no "do-overs" or second chances - not only must you win, but you must win ASAP.
War is hell. it's nice to debate in peace back at home but different when your on the line facing it. I'm reminded of part of the special forces motto “Once the warrior is no longer needed, once he becomes a relic of war, when it seems peace will prevail, he is mocked for being a savage, mocked for being a monster. But, when America needed her warriors to stand between her and doom, she called on her monsters to do what others would not."
I like that motto, it reminds me of Kipling's poem "Tommy Atkins" on how soldiers are abused and denigrated - until they are needed. This is an extract: While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.
Wars are won by the most ruthless generals; General LeMay was instrumental in the United States being the victor over Japan . Weep not for the Japanese civilians; they were totally obedient to the Emperor of Japan and would have fought to the end if the Emperor had not unconditionally surrendered.
@@alexcampos6101 there are episodes that do show the horrors and sadness of war. Yes, most episodes are light hearted but that's because who back then would want to watch something that shows the true horrors of war?
He was also in charge of the bombing campaign of North Korea during Korean War which is also brutal. He definitely believes in the concept of total warfare.
@@tonyanderson5585 That is like arguing the Genghis Khan deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Tacitus described the Roman means of making war (in Britain) as making a desert and calling it peace. The analogy applies here.
The further in time we get from WW II and it's horrors, you'll have these soft handed girly men second guessing the actual men who had to conduct the war. What people today dont realize is that Japan was a fanatical militaristic empire ran by its navy and army. Surrender wasn't part of their program. LeMay understood this and brought thunder like Alexander, Darius, Ghengis Khan before him.
@@jamesmorgan2064 incredible how you can justify those war crimes. How many innocent people lost their lives? A fanatical militaristic empire you say? Hm, sounds just like ..
Le May would have been the greatest, had he convinced Kennedy to start a nuclear war with the USSR. That certainly would have saved the planet from the human species nonsense.
Has anyone here actually read his book? A Torch to the Enemy pretty well sums up his ideas/attitudes,very practical. If you need a job done, don't complain about the methods and praise the results. The moral of the story-don't start if you can't finish it quickly. Stupid generals & admirals. Unfortunately, military-dominated politics tend to be short-sighted.
I think you missed the part of the Cuban Missile crisis. If this psychopath had his way at that time, you wouldn't be writing this garbage on the internet for a simple reason - you wouldn't have been born.
Korea: MacArthur didn't want the radioactive belt *of cobalt* on the 38th Parallel between the two Koreas but on the border between North Korea and China.
If General LeMay had been assigned to Europe and not the Pacific, the Russians had never reached Berlin. War is not a fair competition, is a Dog-Eat-Dog vicious fearless challenge.
Let's not forget the brutality of the Japanese in conquered territories like China, the Philippines, and Korea. Lemay was a boy scout compared to them.
@@fastbike1977 Charles Manson was a murdered, Curtis LeMay was a General fighting against a nation we were at war with. LeMay also had the blessing of his superiors and off the US Govt. Who was Manson authorized by ??
you get a thumb down because of your “lecturing” attitude like you’re a WWII historian. I’m no fan of Le May and with it’s very easy to issue judgement with hindsight! If want to add some credibly to your statement you have to give references to historians and documents! As it is this the usual RUclips sensationalistic video, looking fir more views
In war, being bloodthirsty is a desirable trait. All the major powers bombed civilians, LeMay was just better at it. Considering what Japan did at Nanking and other Chinese cities, they really aren't in a position to talk about brutality. What the Japanese dished out, LeMay returned it , times 10. In wartime, people like LeMay are great men. In peacetime, not so much.
@@jasonross9238 It wasn't an eye for an eye. Even with all the individual crimes committed by US personnel, we never got close to the brutality of Nanking which was an official action of the Japanese Imperial Army. This video seems to ignore the atrocities committed by the Japanese, an understanding of which goes a long way toward explaining why we felt the need to keep LeMay around.
@@jasonross9238 Its the only response in most cases. How do you think Nazi Germany was destroyed ??? Through love ? No, it was through super firepower and manpower. The enemy wastes munitions by putting them in your soldiers, which you can prevent by destroying those munitions before they reach the front. AN EYE FOR AN EYE WORKS !
Virtually all Japanese fought to death either by the enemy or by suicide. When Japan surrendered mass suicide of civilians and military alike exceeded US military losses in the pacific campaign. Nuclear attack on two cities forced surrender and prevented Russian involvement in post war Japan. Your “woke” coverage of this general is clearly biased and entirely devoid of recognition of situational awareness at the time and place of the events. Soldiers, including generals, do not make theatre wide strategic decisions
Thank you, just like me you see how much of a woke sjw this guy is. I used to like his videos but he has gotten so bad I can barely stand to watch his videos anymore
@@myo7697 I'm very familiar with what governments can do and how destructive they are to ordinary people, who have little to do with their governments decisions. However I don't consider Japan as some innocent bystander. They launched a brutal and viscous war against all the Nations of the Pacific Theatre, not just the Western Powers. They devastated the Chinese (who took more loses than anyone in the Pacific) and every nation they invaded was brutalized by them. Their leaders started the war and Japan was treated pretty well after the war considering what they did during the war. People always point out the A-Bomb as being used to discourage the Russians more than stopping the Japanese. Considering what the Russians did to Eastern Europe after the war, I don't think the Japanese People would have preferred Stalin.
Is this the guy who was recorded saying: "We should not just destroy them with the atomic bomb - we should destroy and contaminate them." Mr Rogers this man most definitely was not.
Mr. Rogers lost my respect when he returned from the USSR and said that after meeting their "apple cheeked little children" he couldn't think of them as enemies any longer. I have to suppose that there were "apple cheeked little children" in Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, they certainly WERE our enemies as were the Soviets.
@@josephcope7637 the soviets we're not the enemy they won WW2. The United States defense contractors needed sales so a Boogeyman was invented same story as today.
This has to be one of the most historically inaccurate hatchet jobs that I've ever seen. A lot of the comments are quite frankly historically wrong. His bombing campaign of Japan, in reality, ended up saving more lives than were actually lost. Look at the allied civilian causality estimates for Operation Olympic and Coronet which were based on casualty numbers sustained in the invasion of Okinawa. The U.S. is still using the Purple Hearts minted in 1945 in expectation of the losses they were expecting with the invasion of Japan. People may not like the man, but at least tell the truth about him.
It's becomes easier & easier to rewrite history, and denegrate the men who made it, as time passes. Particularly after those men are no longer around to correct the record.
Le May would have been the greatest, had he convinced Kennedy to start a nuclear war with the USSR. That certainly would have saved the planet from the human species.
A true cold warrior who's efforts certainly kept the peace, if I could have a beer with anyone from history it would be General LeMay, japan had 5000 kamikaze planes in reserve for defense, imagine a conventional landing invasion !!!, :/
You claimed in this video near the end that, "even amongst the Nazi's you had more respect for life, especially civilian life, than Curtis LeMay." So you tell me, were the death camps which were run by the German military not murdering millions of civilians? I don't think that crossed General LeMays mind. Yes, he was "old school" and his job was to obliterate all threats to America, both foreign or domestic per his oath. We have not won any major conflict since WWII as we don't break the enemy's will to fight. I believe that Gregory Meyers and Shell Harris did a lousy hit job on this man who had more courage, convictions and leadership than any of you have ever demonstrated in your lives to this point, Simon. I am very disappointed by this very opinionated slam against this man. He deserved much better than what you gave him.
MP says sir you can't take one step any further smoking that cigar general lemay steps one step further MP slaps cigar out of general lemay's mouth general lemay says who's your commanding officer MP tells general lamay, general lemay tells commanding officer give that boy a stripe. My grand father told me this about lemay.
Fred no one argued the people who committed those crimes weren’t evil. So I don’t know what post you are trying to make. No matter the evil someone’s government doesn’t make it okay to kill innocent civilians on purpose,
It might be worth mentioning that aggression and cold hearted brutality is a human trait, no nation, NOT ONE single nation is completely clean of war crimes and war atrocities. We think ourselves mature, educated and like minded, when we are not. Our nature in war is at its most base, it’s survival mode, its kill or be killed, it’s not fair, it’s a horrible thing.
It's true, but there's something to be gained from maybe trying to be above that. In the video the man mentions it could be a reason North Korea still hates America due to Curtis' brutality. Perhaps I'm wrong, but who knows how many grudges have led into something more and caused wars between nations' leaders or perhaps even superpowers in history? Civilian deaths are almost impossible to justify unless it genuinely saved more lives in the long run in my opinion, which I highly doubt if he killed potentially 20% of North Korea's populus and bombed Japan. Deaths aside, what about the economic and diplomatic damage that's caused by these wars and genocides of civilians?
Also would be interesting if you would do a segment on Operation Downfall, USA invasion of Japan. Look at the numbers if projected dead on both sides. Also you mentioned Japan’s concerns do fighting USSR the back story fir this fear is many sided. The beginning of the cold war were smoking after the last conference of the big three. Your teams work are some of the best I view on RUclips.
Alex onetwothree - It nice to have goals. 😋 I’m a firm believer in diversity, there is a reason we are all different, it works best. That neighbor you hate, come war time he will be your best friend. I’ve never been a soldier, but I recognize that in a pickle... you don’t want nice ones. I remember a Vietnam vet sharing one of his regrets over beers. He was one of those dropped alone behind the lines whose job it was to find his way home and cause as much havoc as possible on the way. He told of being on a trail and running into a very young man. They stopped stared, the kid was wide-eyed and he didn’t shoot, he let the kid pass. I said that’s not a regret! He just stared at me and continued, that kid went back to his village and told them of his location and hell followed him for the next three days. He was injured, but survived, barely. He says his humanity almost cost him his life, that he was naive. My point is... horrible as they may be, the Col. LeMay’s of this world serve a purpose, we can hate them later, decry their methods, but at the same time we must sadly admit at the moment... they were needed. We can curse ourselves for their tactics, their actions, but we must also realize if we put mean badass men in horrible fight or die circumstances, WE are to blame. That we don’t speak Japanese or German is thanks to them. That Germany and Japan are still their respective countries called by the same names should give us comfort, we did the right thing in the end. And yes, look at 911 as an example. One of the interviews aired with a 911 attacker/assistant that helped them but didn’t board a plane stays with me. When asked why he decided to be a terrorist, he replied Terrorist? Allah BLESSED our actions! YOU had no right to stop us or hold me! My children’s children’s (x4) children will seek revenge for your actions. Think on that... We caught him after he helped to kill over 2,000 people, and HIS children will seek revenge. He explained further and it sent a chill up my spine understanding his perspective, Allah is in charge and knows everything, if Allah didn’t bless it Allah would have stopped it. As they were allowed them to continue with and execute their plans, Allah blessed it, all of it. That we were trying to prosecute HIM, was unthinkable, he was doing Allah’s will and we just didn’t get it. I wonder about this world sometimes.
This is a completely ignorant analysis of the WW II situation that the US had to deal with. You can’t have it both ways: if Tokyo was worse than atomic bombing, why didn’t the Japanese quit then? Have you heard of Iwo Jima? Kamikaze? What else could mil planners possibly conclude? Le May was doing his job. Awesomely. (Yes yes he was racist but that does not besmirch his job running USAAF is S Pacific.)
'Limited Warfare' is definitely not a concept LeMay subscribed to. He was a warrior for his time; there were awful warcrimes going on ALL over the world and he was not above using the same strategy to defeat our enemies completely. We can shake our heads ruefully at the lack of humanity in retrospect, but we must try to keep his actions within the context of his time and learn.
Exactly. Easy for us to sit on our couches and comment on RUclips. He was watching our boys go into the meat grinder and not come back. He knew what a land invasion would entail.
Another hit piece from a smarmy “journalist” who has never had to suffer through war or any hardship. The self loathing displayed by western commentators like this is insane.
Do I detect a British accent here? Perhaps you haven't researched the exploits of "Bomber" Harris during the skirmish you guys had with the Germans from 1940-45. Does the "Bombing of Cologne ring a bell. Gen. LeMay like Gen. Patton was a great general who had a tough job to do in fighting the war, and he did a great job in doing it. As a retired USAF veteran I think this video and your bashing of a great American general is of very poor taste and heavily slanted with the current Liberal/Socialist thinking in Europe today. War is Hell and if you haven't experienced it first hand, don't go bashing our American Military Heroes!!!!
General LeMay would have insisted we bomb Hanoi and other Vietnamese cities relentlessly until the north surrendered. I’m not advocating for our involvement in the war just suggesting a method to win it swiftly and decisively. Think Japanese and German cities engulfed in flames from incessant incendiary bombing. Carefully contemplate war but go all out if it is truly necessary. If you do not have the stomach for winning at all costs you should probably seek another method to reach the desired outcome or leave alone completely. Besides, I don’t appreciate a bald Brit who would likely be speaking German if it were not for the American GI whining about General LeMay and other effective US military leaders.
@@captindo Most of those soldiers who lives were saved, were actually civilians until thye had to be drafted because the Japanese dragged us into the war. I'd gather most of them would have liked to be home with their sweethearts and families instead of being thrust into the war.
This is a very narrow view with half truths. Tokyo was firebombed because most of the Japanese war production was embedded in the civilian populations and precision bombing was not possible. Also, Roosevelt and Truman supported it. Dresden on the other hand, was firebombed simply to terrorize the population. Lemay also fully modernized Strategic Air Command. He airlifted food and fuel to West Berlin for 11 months due to a Soviet blockade after the war. Oh, he also received The Order of the Rising Sun by Japan. You should talk about all neat things Winston Churchill has done. Like being a racist, and advocating the use of chemical weapon against the Kurds, for a start.
Lemay also thought that Kennedy's policies were too soft and would put the US in a position of losing a nuclear exchange, and that a pre-emptive strike against the Soviets was the best course of action to take. He also strove to keep the Air Force ready in case that option became available. This is why politicians are in charge, and the Military needs to stick to fighting a war, and to not get involved with political decisions. The Joint Chiefs also proposed that we Nuke an American city and blame it on them, to which Kennedy just looked at them dumbfounded and total amazement. Needless to say, Kennedy rejected the plan outright.
General LeMay himself said that he’d be tried a war criminal if his side lost. Still I have to point out that His motivation for these horrific acts isn’t fueled by ideology but by a cold hearted strategic thinking.
The host needs to do some research (I.e some reading) on his subject and the era leading up to and including World War Two! Your remarks sir and this very abbreviated biography are garbage!
To defeat a monster , you need to be a monster. The Japanese Imperial Army was a monster of epic proportions. The degree of sadistic brutality they employed was without precedent in modern history. After witnessing the atrocities they perpetrated, nothing was too horrific to use against them in order to defeat them. If they had won, they would have slaughtered the survivors, civilian or military personnel, of all the countries they were at war with. They would have killed anyone who was not Japanese except those they chose to enslave. That is absolutely the course of action Japan would have taken and they needed to be stopped by any means necessary, including their own vile tactics. Remember they cared nothing about human lives, including those of their own citizens, as evidenced by their refusal to surrender after the first atomic detonation, thereby subjecting their own people to a second atomic blast. History needs to be remembered accurately and without bias. War is Hell, and no country acted so Hellishly as Japan,. Yes Germany acted heinously, because Hitler was a crazed and evil dictator. Japans atrocities were part of a carefully thought out and executed strategy developed by its hawks and sanctioned by it's rulers.
It is so easy to take any part/figure of world war 2 out of context and parade the barbarity of it - the whole affair was utterly tragic and devastating to humanity. These 'facts' themselves are debatable - to suggest he had a "focus on civilian cities and installations" when the military industrial capability of Japan was dispersed into its civilian infrastructure is misleading. It is very easy for you to moralise, judge and ridicule their decisions from the comfort and safety of our times. Lemay and his contemporaries did what it took to win the war - why on earth would they regret this?
"Bombs Away LeMay". Brutal man, but necessary in times of war. If I were president and assembling a war cabinet, I would include him. War criminal or not, he got things done and didn't shirk at making the hard decisions.
You can surely find ways to justify his bombing campaigns against Japan because of how brutal the Japanese were, but lets not forget that if he had been in charge during the Cuban Missile Crisis we probably wouldnt be here today, or at least the world would be a totally different one.
@@captainmacmillan1752 He wasn't "in charge" during WW2 either. LeMay had superiors who ultimately gave him his orders, including Mr. New Deal himself, President FD Roosevelt. Truman was barely in his first term when the Japanese surrendered so you can pretty well rest assured that it was FDR who was bombing Japan, not LeMay...
The dream team would be Patton for the Army, McArthur for the Marines (I know he was in the Army) LaMay for the AirForce, and Nimitz for the navy. Give me that war cabinet and there is no war they couldn't win.
Although this video attacks General Le May unfairly for his actions in WW2 that is not the greatest problem with it. The greatest problem is that it simply repeats the same lie about the overwhelming effect that the atomic bomb had on the willingness of Japan to continue the war. It fails to consider the attitude of the Japanese leadership and Japanese people’s attitude toward surrender. As allied forces fought their way across the Pacific, it became clear that the Japanese simply did not surrender. Every island battle resulted in the Annihilation of entire Japanese garrisons. Those who did not die in battle committed suicide rather than surrender. The closer the allies came to the home islands the greater the losses not just for our forces but also for the Japanese troops defending those islands. It was slaughter. Once Okinawa was secured, Operation Downfall was planned. We prepared to suffer hundreds of thousands of US casualties in order to win the war with Japan. We also prepared to see the slaughter of not just the Japanese military forces but also of civilians who were preparing to fight off US Marines with bamboo spears! US losses may have been as great as 1 million casualties. Japanese losses would have been in the many millions! Ending the war quickly and without invasion was the best possible outcome. The argument that it was the Russian entry into the war was the deciding factor in the Japanese surrender has no basis in fact. It was certainly a grave concern but no more so than an invasion by US forces. It took the Japanese time to understand the power of the atomic bomb. It took them ever more time to accept defeat. Ultimately, it was the Atomic Bomb that caused them to surrender. The proof of this is clearly stated in Hirohito’s speech to the Japanese people. He said; “Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, nor to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers”. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan was the most humanitarian act of World War Two. It saved millions of US and Japanese lives. It defeated one of the most evil and immoral regimes in history. This video would now look at the use of the bomb as some great immoral act. In reality, anything that ended the war without invasion was completely moral.
They didn't care about your bombs. They had endured many bombings and the A-bombs was no different. The Russians wiping out the whole Kwantung army in less than a week was much more worrisome for them.
Also it wasn't needed to end the war, Tran just had to say theire emperor would be ok as they'd been asking for a long time. Hiroshima and Nagasaki was show off for Stalin, there's nothing humanitarian in it.
You are entitled to your opinions, no matter how wrong they are, you conveniently forget the atrocities committed by the Japanese and the Germans, the bombing of London, the Bataan Death March. LeMay was our top warrior, God Bless him.
Blatant Whataboutism. Justifying one atrocity by pointing out another does not make your atrocity any less of an atrocity. I know that the IJA committed all these crimes. That changes nothing. Curtis LeMay is still as much an unprosecuted War Criminal, just like Unit 731.
Motto of the Strategic Air Command is "Peace is our Profession" and LeMay was the father of SAC. The concept of building a force significant enough to encourage an adversary not to attack the US can only be backed up with historical examples. Once a brutal adversary begins a campaign thankfully we are equally brutal to find peace. Your viewpoints seem to be lopsided with a goal to support your title. He fully sought peace unless we were at war or the possibility of war. War is not for nice guys. They are trying to kills us and forcing us to surrender our will to continue the fight. Where would we be without warriors.
He understood the brutality of war. He just had a problem with the subtleties of politics. He didn't always connect political negotiation with peace and reduction in tensions. He just thought of politicians and diplomats as a bunch of pansies trying to talk their way out of a cave full of hungry bears (the Russians). His solution was to blow up the cave full of bears, if they got out of hand.
" when you kill enough of them, they stop fighting..." Curtis LeMay
A lesson the Vietnamese did not learn.
@@hoytoy100 This comment made my evening
@@hoytoy100 I disagree. The North Vietnamese knew Americans has no stomach for fathers, sons, and husbands returning in body bags
Now that's a cool quote though given the description of this man and how he'd handle the crisis of Russia and Ukraine I'm pretty sure he'd just bomb and blast Russia to oblivion and make things worse then again in our times he'd be pretty hard getting permission for any plane for military action compared to when he was in charge.
And he only needed too kill one president to achieve that.
Best head of hair in the Military
Now I know why Simon was so Harsh
I think Simon may have been harsh because the man was an total idiot. His hair makes him look like the coward he was.
Yup, that's the reason
That makes scene. LeMay was the most important and best Air Force General ever and with nice hair and a big cigar.
@@tfolmer1234 He was 100 times the man that you"ll ever dream of being
BTW to the comment about cowardice. LeMay flew many lead bombers over Germany, he was utterly fearless
Arthur "Bomber" Harris of RAF Bomber Command: Razes Dresden to the ground.
Curtis LeMay: "Hold my beer"
LeMay was brutal? What about the Bataan Death March? What about Manchuria? Who attacked who at Pearl Harbor? The Japanese were fanatical when it came to fighting to the end. LeMay did not order the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Truman did. The US was going to bomb Japan into submission with or without Lemay. The Japanese can thank Tojo and his cronies for the suffering they received. General Homma was brutal to Americans too. So, it has been said a billion times before, War Is Hell!
Code3Forever Japan’s civilians had nothing to do with the war and no matter what the enemy does nothing makes it okay to purposefully target and kill civilians especially when Japan had already lost the war along with most of their military forces.
nazi reasoning
@@robertp457 the common people, the civilians, support japanese government actually. Don't forget that even during in war, Japan was at least a semi Democractic nation
@@wiins7850putting aside the fact that you have no polls or data to back that up, it still doesn't justify indiscriminately bombing children
I don’t deny the fact that he was a proponent of total war but I’m sure the Citizens of Nanjing would disagree with him being one of the worst of World War II
Yeah, a lot of people either don’t know about or conveniently leave that little chapter out.
Or the citizens of Leningard. War is a monster and it makes monsters.
what happens at 4:13 with the audio????
I lived thru that era . He was a hawk and a student of warfare. He may have been in charge but he still was GIVEN his marching orders by those above him. He didn't advocate Nukes in Vietnam as widely reported.... He just didn't rule out the use of anything in the U.S. Arsenal. BIG DIFFERENCE. Chest thumping and sabre rattling seemed to be his favorite pastime and everyone knew it. Just look at the world situation today and see others acting in the same way .......
"War crime" is an oxymoron. If you're not willing to commit to genocide, *don't go to war.*
"Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
" [and] "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.
" [and finally] "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.
" - William Tecumseh Sherman. LeMay must have read Sherman.
"In a war there are many moments for compassion and tender action. There are many moments for ruthless action. What is often called ruthless. What may in many circumstances be only clarity; seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it. Directly, quickly, awake!" Captain Benjamin L. Willard, _Apocalypse Now_
"Those who believe the pen is mightier than the sword obviously has never met the US Pacific fleet"- Admiral Chester Nimitz
Considering his thoughts & memories were written down as well as published during many of the same campaigns I would hope you to be not serious?
@@ronmeier8850 Sorry Dr Butthead, I ddnt know this was history class. Thanks..It was MacArthur. Hey, why ddn't you know that? Armchair, know just enough to be a troll.
"Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women. " - freekin CONAN!!! ⚔🏹💣
My Father fought in Korea, he never spoke of it... ever.
So often, I think the people who tell you war horror stories 10 minutes after you meet them are lying. Most people who really go through the nightmare want to go over it.
Very few vets from there ever do...as they wish they had never gone, or even come back thanks to the US policies.
Combat vets talk to other combat vets, it's hard to explain or relate what you have seen to people that were not there. One generations hero is the next generations monster as this video shows well.
All I knew of his service was that he was a Navy CB and did underwater demolitions along with building a airstrip other than that he said nothing else.
At his funeral, the 21 gun salute along with the bugle was the toughest part of it.
To this day, I have a hard time with that in movies/tv shows.
After this video that talks about Korea, I have a better understanding as to why he never spoke about it.
Both of my grandpas never spoke about it, either, not even to me, and I'm a veteran. Granted at least one grandpa ways thought of me as a little girl on his knee so he may have found it inappropriate or unfit for my ears.
I love the way the Brits paper over their own brutal ways. Bomber Harris made no bones that he was out to kill civilians. Lemay, like Wm Sherman understood that war is hell.
So Lemay wanted to make it as hellish as possible?
@@MegaFortinbras Yes. Had he had his way in1961, the world would have plunged into nuclear war. The man was an absolute lunatic.
Lemay was a lunatic, low IQ. Harris was the total opposite and well respected by his peers.
Harris and LeMay were, in many ways, cut out of the same cloth.
@@AB-80Xyou mean he would have beat the soviets in a nuclear war and would have created a new Era of peace and harmony.
General Le May was a warrior you don’t win wars by playing fair. You win by any means necessary
If he had his way, the US wouldn't be the superpower it is today tbh. Kennedy saved us from his crazy antics
Yes right and same will be done with Americans in next war. So be prepared. What goes around comes around 🤣
*War is cruel It cannot be refined*
-William T Sherman
@@aa-hb3tgAnyone is welcome to try
The US was going to win regardless
Simon, remember 'Bomber Harris' of the UK? Could you please do a episode on his leadership.
Yup! If you are going to trash someone as a bloodthirsty General, how about stepping up with someone from your home. Remember, the sun never set on the British empire? That was not done by just asking the other countries to come along and play with the UK. It was world wide dominance on a massive scale!
@@dougterhune9364 But like Arthur Harris as he is way better than Herman Goering or other German General during WW2.
@@dougterhune9364 Heinz Guderian was the one to be a butcher of Europe by using blitzkrieg.
My father’s destroyer was heading to the Panama Canal on his way to Okinawa when we nuked Japan. Thank you, General.
lick them boots boy
@@MontyDotharl Perspectives. Given the blood bath that Okinawa turned out to be, it's inevitable some who were lucky not to have to landed there would be thankful to those who made sure they didn't have to
@@AvoidTheCadaver licky licky licky
AvoidTheCadaver there was no reason to attack Japan’s mainland since by that time their navy and Air Force were wiped out and they had very few military targets left to destroy. Specifically targeting and killing civilians is wrong no matter the people who claimed it was the only way. The people who claimed it was the only way were also the people who decided to purposefully kill civilians. Laws were put into place after WWII outlawing killing civilians on purpose or fell being careless.
NAVRET the General didn’t nuke Japan he nuked non-military targets and purposefully killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians. Idiot.
What your missing here is that the Japanese were more than a match for the title of brute. The Island of Japan was densely packed and the war manufacturing were intertwined. The people were also were proud to die for the emperor. Beheadings of prisoners, the starvation of prisoner were all in a days work for the Japanese. The penchant to fight to the death is justification for the bombing and the use of the A-Bomb.
True, but for LeMay even if they were a nation of boy scouts I doubt it would have made a dime's worth of difference.
@@johnbrowning8785 Leave the Boy Scouts out of this dumb argument.
@@briancrawford8751 If that's how you feel, I suggest you follow your own counsel.
@@johnbrowning8785 I really just don't see what the Boy Scouts have to do with any of this.
@@briancrawford8751 It's called 'metaphore'. Open a book sometime.
Your assessment of LeMay indicates your lack of understanding of the man and the times in which he fought in. Your use of your modern day prism regarding your sanctimonious morality only serves to underscore the misreading of the enemy and would have cost the lives of many more men. The bombing of Japan’s civilian populace was also predicated on the fact their war production efforts was decentralized meaning that in order to degrade their ability to fight the cities unfortunately had to be strategically bombarded- leading to high civilian casualties. If your going to comment on a man get to know the man!
You forgot to mention that this man had the audacity to smoke a cigar in the gallery at JFKs autopsy and refused to put it out when asked
You think that was the most audacious thing he did with JFK ? What about being in on the assassination
Lemay as a hero who did what had to be done
Just a pity he went off the rails later with Wallace…
He also ran the Berlin Airlift which kept Berlin and its civilians alive in the early 1950s. He wasn't the total monster that you paint him to be.
I get the feeling he was a white supremacist. He seemed to only want to kill people of other races
@@trancemadmaz He wanted to kill Americans too. Look up Operation Northwoods.
@@ATOMIC_V155 no, when you kill innocent people, you are a murderer.
@@trancemadmaz No, he killed plenty of Germans too. He originally commanded a Bomber Group based in the UK. He didn't transfer to the Pacific until the end of '44.
@@lenny5774 then his superiors would have to be murderers too since they authorized him. So you'd have to add to the list FDR, Gen George Marshall, Gen Henry Arnold, Gen Dwight Eisenhower, President Harry Truman, Gen Ira Eaker, Gen Jimmy Doolittle , and Gen Douglas MacArthur since were all his superiors at one time or another and gave him the go-ahead.
Given that Emperor Hirohito specifically referred to the atomic bomb when he explained the reason for surrendering to the United States, I don't understand how anyone can dispute that the dropping of the atomic bomb brought a quick close to the war with Japan.
This is true. People who try to explain away the "coincidence" that the Japanese surrendered within days of the atomic bombings, when the even more horrifying firestorm attacks on Tokyo only provoked more resistance, are ignoring the obvious. And in this case, the Japanese themselves, the ones who mattered, to a one all pointed at the atomic bombings as the reason for the surrender.
Those who try to explain it away are making the mistake of thinking that admitting it is somehow endorsing the use of atomic weapons in the future. You're not going to prevent another use of nuclear weapons by pretending they didn't work when they quite obviously did. It just makes you look stupid.
Strategic bombing, like any attack on noncombatats, whether at Nanking, Manila, or Dresden, or Tokyo, is morally indefensible and numerous facts and statistics of the war prove that it largely doesn't work. Month-to-month productivity of war materiel went UP in both Germany and Japan following large-scale strategic bombings. So it's a failed strategy that involves murdering women, elderly, children, en masse.
The irony is that the only strategic bombings that actually worked, exactly as expected, were the two atomic bombings. In that aspect it could be argued that they were the only ones that were even remotely justified. All the rest of them were simply murder.
Mutually assured duncery
@@josephledux8598 Only problem with that this what resistance? They had no navy, no air, no oil, easily 50 years behind in technology, and already starving to death without any help. Just let them flounder on their island until they are forced to submit.
@@thekey1175 if the government says it was necessary than it is nothing but propaganda they are all liars
@@thekey1175 50 years behind in technology? Not sure where you got this from, but it's just not true. At the beginning of the war, the Mitsubishi Zero outclassed anything America had in the Pacific. You are also conveniently ignoring the fact that there were MULTIPLE campaigns continuing to rage at the same time Hirohito was surrendering, including the Phillipines and China. General Yamashita had some 40,000 soldiers still in Luzon the day Japan surrendered.
Wow...it is really clear that Simon does not know that LeMay was ordered to firebomb Japan by Hap Arnold...as was his predecessor Haywood Hansell. LeMay's only contribution to the whole thing was deciding to go in at low altitude.
We won, didn't we? Thank you, General Lemay.
Hope he's in a nuclear hell for his deeds. A total mad despot no better than Hitler or any other.
I normally enjoy your Top Tenz, but you need to lay off the moralizing. General Lemay was ordered by General Hap Arnold to pursue a campaign of relentless bombing against Japanese and it's resources. Generals (whether Army Air Force, Army, or Marines) don't operate in a vacuum with their own little empire. They're micromanaged from up above and his bombing campaign was fully authorized by General's Arnold and Marshall as well as FDR and later Truman. He was put in charge because of his ability to get the job done. He was a superb organizer, leader, and one of the best Bomber Navigators and Pilots in the Army Air Force, even before the war. His focus on pilot training, aircraft maintenance, careful mission planning, and improved Search and Rescue reduced losses in his commands (both in the Europe earlier in the war and later in the Pacific). Prior to him taking over in the Pacific the Air Campaign had been bogged by mechanical issues with the B-29, a lackluster Command, a lack of launch and recovery sites for B-29's, and wasted bombing using high altitude bombing. We now know from the Bombing Studies that high altitude bombing was inaccurate and a waste of resources, especially in Japan. Lemay surmised that due to the fragile state of Japanese Structures and a depleted Air Force he could send Bombers on lower altitude runs using White Phosphorus and High Explosives to cause greater damage and it worked. Still the Army Air Force had the highest per capita losses of any Group in the US Forces in WWII from accidents and combat. As with Sherman or Grant, you needed a Commander who got the job done. Grant's nickname after Cold Harbor was the "Butcher" due to all the losses. Earlier Commanders like McClellan built the Army, but didn't have the stones to do the job. Lemay might have been bloodthirsty, but he got the job done. It was the same when he later helped set up Strategic Air Command. As for the A Bomb we can moralize about the decision for a hundred years, we weren't in the shoes of the men who had to make the decision to drop it. Plus, the Japanese were pretty damn bloodthirsty themselves as evidenced by their brutality towards the Chinese (and everyone else) and unwillingness to surrender at any time during the war. So did anyone expect towards the end, a sudden change of philosophy just because they were losing?
LeMay was a monster. Plain and simple
@@mgway4661He may have been a monster but his Japanese counterparts took the cake on brutality.
Soldier: "General LeMay, we have found an enemy position, what would you like us to do?"
LeMay: "Bomb them."
Soldier: "...Okay, how many bombs?"
LeMay: " *Y e s* ."
🤣🤣🤣🤣
"okay how many bombs?"
"Bomb them back to stone age"
Soldier: “...Okay, how many bombs should we drop?”
LeMay: “All of them.”
Hogwash!! William Tecumseh Sherman said of war: "War is hell...War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." He also said: "War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen and I say let us give them all they want." Lemay made some questionable decisions years later as in the Cuban missile crises but his B-29 fire bombing of Japanese cities forced Japan to surrender more than the two nuclear bombs did. We have not won a war since due to the lack of commitment to total victory by our politicians. I really hope that we see less and less of wars in the future. It only profits the military industrial complex as President Eisenhower warned.
I dont see how Sherman is not a pshychopath
@@joshowen9054 all generals ARE !
Attack, attack, and when in doubt, attack again.
Not bloodthirsty. Nor a monster. He wanted to win but was not involved in the decision to use the A-bomb, nor was he a huge fan of it, in the Pacific War.
This was very interesting, but the whole time I was wondering why this wasn’t a Biographics video? I’m sure there must be one in the works
"Death, destruction, disease, horror. That's what war is all about. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided.” -- James T. Kirk (captain, U.S.S. Enterprise).
😆I love the way u quote him as if he were a real person
@@jaydedinnoo8819 wasn't he??Oh wait..
Meetinghouse was carried out less than two weeks after the Manila Massacre in which Japanese troops deliberately killed tens of thousands of Filipinos who were American citizens at that time. Reprisal attacks are allowed under international law and the people of the United States at that time has zero patience with the idea that a foreign power could murder American servicemen at Pearl Harbor without a Declaration of War and then murder tens of thousands of Americans after years of brutal occupation without any Reprisal. There was no specific vote held, but had there been a Referendum the American voters would have overwhelmingly approved of LeMay's bombing of Japan. ;-)
Well said.
An installment of TopTenz that actually left me disappointed. As several viewers have written before me, this was war, not a sporting event. There are no "do-overs" or second chances - not only must you win, but you must win ASAP.
War is hell. it's nice to debate in peace back at home but different when your on the line facing it. I'm reminded of part of the special forces motto “Once the warrior is no longer needed, once he becomes a relic of war, when it seems peace will prevail, he is mocked for being a savage, mocked for being a monster. But, when America needed her warriors to stand between her and doom, she called on her monsters to do what others would not."
I like that motto, it reminds me of Kipling's poem "Tommy Atkins" on how soldiers are abused and denigrated - until they are needed. This is an extract:
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be'ind,"
But it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's " Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.
Bingo!
Ed Drz there is a difference in fighting other combatants and killing innocent civilians.
@@robertp457nope. War is war. Not hard to comprehend.
Wars are won by the most ruthless generals; General LeMay was instrumental in the United States being the victor over Japan . Weep not for the Japanese civilians; they were totally obedient to the Emperor of Japan and would have fought to the end if the Emperor had not unconditionally surrendered.
My father’s old Boss. ‘’If I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal “ Curtis LeMay
Richard Johnson why do you have to always balance??
Also Curtis LeMay: “If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.” Yup. 👍
That is not as damning as you seem to imagine. It is in fact a banal observation, true of any losing side in any war.
M*A*S*H fans (like myself):
"Simon, you obviously haven't seen ALL the episodes..." (we love you anyway!)
I dont get ur comments can u explain
@@alexcampos6101 there are episodes that do show the horrors and sadness of war. Yes, most episodes are light hearted but that's because who back then would want to watch something that shows the true horrors of war?
@@medmom11 Or now, they'd rather spread hate in comments :-(
@@saidtoshimaru1832 Did not know that!
@@hkbabel Yep. It was seen as to troublesome to make a movie about Vietnam in 1975.
Did you Really just say that the Nazis were more concerned with sparing civilians than was Lemay? Are you f'n Kidding me?
He was also in charge of the bombing campaign of North Korea during Korean War which is also brutal. He definitely believes in the concept of total warfare.
That why he was the greatest Air Force general in history and just one of the best man in history.
@@tonyanderson5585 or just a huge wanker.
Yes, that was #8. begins 3:15 on the video
@@tonyanderson5585 That is like arguing the Genghis Khan deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Tacitus described the Roman means of making war (in Britain) as making a desert and calling it peace. The analogy applies here.
As did William Tecumseh Sherman. And as do I. Curtis LeMay said it best: “When you kill enough of the enemy, eventually they stop fighting.” Yup. 👍
"Bombs away with Curtis LeMay!"
My late uncle was a p.o.w of the Japanese. He approved dropping the bomb.that was all the approval I needed to support it
That means you support nuking the US population because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As someone that knew General LeMay, you have him all wrong. He had a job to do and he did it.
The further in time we get from WW II and it's horrors, you'll have these soft handed girly men second guessing the actual men who had to conduct the war. What people today dont realize is that Japan was a fanatical militaristic empire ran by its navy and army. Surrender wasn't part of their program. LeMay understood this and brought thunder like Alexander, Darius, Ghengis Khan before him.
@@jamesmorgan2064 incredible how you can justify those war crimes. How many innocent people lost their lives? A fanatical militaristic empire you say? Hm, sounds just like ..
Le May would have been the greatest, had he convinced Kennedy to start a nuclear war with the USSR. That certainly would have saved the planet from the human species nonsense.
AMEN!!!
Has anyone here actually read his book? A Torch to the Enemy pretty well sums up his ideas/attitudes,very practical. If you need a job done, don't complain about the methods and praise the results. The moral of the story-don't start if you can't finish it quickly. Stupid generals & admirals. Unfortunately, military-dominated politics tend to be short-sighted.
I think you missed the part of the Cuban Missile crisis. If this psychopath had his way at that time, you wouldn't be writing this garbage on the internet for a simple reason - you wouldn't have been born.
OK, I don't want to go out on a limb here, but I'm thinking Simon isn't as fond of Curtiss LeMay as he might be of other persons of note...
He is not fond of the USA...period.
Hair
Maybe do a video like this about J. Edgar Hoover. He's another American figure with skeletons in his closet
big G that man has a graveyard in his closet
As well as a number of dresses, stilettos and makeup.
LeMay had no skeletons. He had no shame nor did he attempt to hide them. Hoover was a turd in a suit.
@@anarchyantz1564 Hey, you stole my line!
@@anarchyantz1564 Gay Edgar Hoover
Korea: MacArthur didn't want the radioactive belt *of cobalt* on the 38th Parallel between the two Koreas but on the border between North Korea and China.
If General LeMay had been assigned to Europe and not the Pacific, the Russians had never reached Berlin. War is not a fair competition, is a Dog-Eat-Dog vicious fearless challenge.
Let's not forget the brutality of the Japanese in conquered territories like China, the Philippines, and Korea. Lemay was a boy scout compared to them.
Really? So we shouldnt have put Charles Manson in jail because he didnt kill millions?
@@fastbike1977 Charles Manson was a murdered, Curtis LeMay was a General fighting against a nation we were at war with. LeMay also had the blessing of his superiors and off the US Govt. Who was Manson authorized by ??
@@fastbike1977 not even close to what he' saying. He's comparing two evils while still condemning both, not saying LeMay was in the right.
Thank you for that. Half my family was tortured and slaughtered in Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. None of them were military combatants.
Lol Classic Whataboutism. The topic is LeMay not the Japanese or anyone else.
you get a thumb down because of your “lecturing” attitude like you’re a WWII historian. I’m no fan of Le May and with it’s very easy to issue judgement with hindsight! If want to add some credibly to your statement you have to give references to historians and documents! As it is this the usual RUclips sensationalistic video, looking fir more views
In war, being bloodthirsty is a desirable trait. All the major powers bombed civilians, LeMay was just better at it. Considering what Japan did at Nanking and other Chinese cities, they really aren't in a position to talk about brutality. What the Japanese dished out, LeMay returned it , times 10. In wartime, people like LeMay are great men. In peacetime, not so much.
I'm not sure eye for an eye is a smart response. Fight smart and allow your enemies to waste munitions and lives on pointless objective.
@@jasonross9238 It wasn't an eye for an eye. Even with all the individual crimes committed by US personnel, we never got close to the brutality of Nanking which was an official action of the Japanese Imperial Army. This video seems to ignore the atrocities committed by the Japanese, an understanding of which goes a long way toward explaining why we felt the need to keep LeMay around.
Wow, great point.
@@jasonross9238 Its the only response in most cases. How do you think Nazi Germany was destroyed ??? Through love ? No, it was through super firepower and manpower.
The enemy wastes munitions by putting them in your soldiers, which you can prevent by destroying those munitions before they reach the front. AN EYE FOR AN EYE WORKS !
The losers in WW2 killed almost twice what the "winners" did!
While assigned to SAC, I heard Gen. LeMay stories about his legendary level of crazy.
I went to the same dentist growing up, he would refuse novocaine because only enlisted men use it!
Same here.
Nutcase
Virtually all Japanese fought to death either by the enemy or by suicide. When Japan surrendered mass suicide of civilians and military alike exceeded US military losses in the pacific campaign. Nuclear attack on two cities forced surrender and prevented Russian involvement in post war Japan. Your “woke” coverage of this general is clearly biased and entirely devoid of recognition of situational awareness at the time and place of the events. Soldiers, including generals, do not make theatre wide strategic decisions
Thank you, just like me you see how much of a woke sjw this guy is. I used to like his videos but he has gotten so bad I can barely stand to watch his videos anymore
Absolutely correct.
@@marks1638 you all just justify genocides you imagine yourselfes as antiheroes and romanticize governments when they are all complete monsters.
@@myo7697 I'm very familiar with what governments can do and how destructive they are to ordinary people, who have little to do with their governments decisions. However I don't consider Japan as some innocent bystander. They launched a brutal and viscous war against all the Nations of the Pacific Theatre, not just the Western Powers. They devastated the Chinese (who took more loses than anyone in the Pacific) and every nation they invaded was brutalized by them. Their leaders started the war and Japan was treated pretty well after the war considering what they did during the war. People always point out the A-Bomb as being used to discourage the Russians more than stopping the Japanese. Considering what the Russians did to Eastern Europe after the war, I don't think the Japanese People would have preferred Stalin.
War is War . Le May understood that. If you are not a warrior . Don’t try and understand him .
I’m a warrior and he is a monster
Is this the guy who was recorded saying:
"We should not just destroy them with the atomic bomb - we should destroy and contaminate them."
Mr Rogers this man most definitely was not.
Mr. Rogers lost my respect when he returned from the USSR and said that after meeting their "apple cheeked little children" he couldn't think of them as enemies any longer. I have to suppose that there were "apple cheeked little children" in Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, they certainly WERE our enemies as were the Soviets.
@@josephcope7637 the soviets we're not the enemy they won WW2. The United States defense contractors needed sales so a Boogeyman was invented same story as today.
Maybe this Simon guy would have felt differently if he'd have spent some time on Okinawa.
LeMay refused to support the land campaign on Okinawa when asked, in favor of bombing more civilians in Japan
That awkward moment when you have the same last name and are not related and you father was in the airforce.
Who are you and where have you lived? Try living in South Chicago and take a talk after sunset.
This has to be one of the most historically inaccurate hatchet jobs that I've ever seen. A lot of the comments are quite frankly historically wrong. His bombing campaign of Japan, in reality, ended up saving more lives than were actually lost. Look at the allied civilian causality estimates for Operation Olympic and Coronet which were based on casualty numbers sustained in the invasion of Okinawa. The U.S. is still using the Purple Hearts minted in 1945 in expectation of the losses they were expecting with the invasion of Japan.
People may not like the man, but at least tell the truth about him.
It's becomes easier & easier to rewrite history, and denegrate the men who made it, as time passes. Particularly after those men are no longer around to correct the record.
Le May would have been the greatest, had he convinced Kennedy to start a nuclear war with the USSR. That certainly would have saved the planet from the human species.
A true cold warrior who's efforts certainly kept the peace, if I could have a beer with anyone from history it would be General LeMay, japan had 5000 kamikaze planes in reserve for defense, imagine a conventional landing invasion !!!, :/
No, LeMay knew someone on the allied side needed to play the "bad guy" to convince the Soviets that MAD policy would be followed through.
That is how you win A-war You beat them to they don't wanna play no more we need more men like him did be no taliban or ISIS
You claimed in this video near the end that, "even amongst the Nazi's you had more respect for life, especially civilian life, than Curtis LeMay." So you tell me, were the death camps which were run by the German military not murdering millions of civilians? I don't think that crossed General LeMays mind. Yes, he was "old school" and his job was to obliterate all threats to America, both foreign or domestic per his oath. We have not won any major conflict since WWII as we don't break the enemy's will to fight. I believe that Gregory Meyers and Shell Harris did a lousy hit job on this man who had more courage, convictions and leadership than any of you have ever demonstrated in your lives to this point, Simon. I am very disappointed by this very opinionated slam against this man. He deserved much better than what you gave him.
I suggest you look in the DSM 5 - Antisocial Personality Disorder.
I kinda doubt you folk know much about Imperial Japan if you feel sympathy / empathy for them.
Excellent point
The video is about Le May, not about Japan.
He was also in charge of security for MJ12 and keeping Roswell and everything related to UFO's in complete secrecy. Who is in charge today?
MP says sir you can't take one step any further smoking that cigar general lemay steps one step further MP slaps cigar out of general lemay's mouth general lemay says who's your commanding officer MP tells general lamay, general lemay tells commanding officer give that boy a stripe. My grand father told me this about lemay.
Simon when are you going to make a video of Churchill's actions in India during WW2. The research is available. Or is it a British thing?
Oooooooooo! truth hurts huh bruh
How many books in American schools point out the terrible things Americans have done?
He probably will eventually, but it has been something covered by other history channels before, so it might be a bit.
Context, context, context. That's key when doing research on that, or passing judgment.
During Cuba crisis, JFK had a big trouble with this monster.
The real monsters, are the ones in the comment section
Perfect comment
Hahaha
Hey, we have names.
BOO! Now run to your safe space.
You really think that commenters, even the troll ones, are worse than LeMay? Strange perspective.
And the Japanese weren't brutal? Look at all the atrocities that they inflicted during WW 2?
Fred no one argued the people who committed those crimes weren’t evil. So I don’t know what post you are trying to make. No matter the evil someone’s government doesn’t make it okay to kill innocent civilians on purpose,
This guy needs to read about Japan unit 731. This unit wrote the manual on human brutality just like Hitler's Germany. War is brutality.
Curtis LeMay didn't start either war. Lesson: Some folks are nice, until they're not. Best not to mess with them.
THAT is truth!!
I channel a lot of his energy for my NCO duties
It might be worth mentioning that aggression and cold hearted brutality is a human trait, no nation, NOT ONE single nation is completely clean of war crimes and war atrocities. We think ourselves mature, educated and like minded, when we are not. Our nature in war is at its most base, it’s survival mode, its kill or be killed, it’s not fair, it’s a horrible thing.
It's true, but there's something to be gained from maybe trying to be above that. In the video the man mentions it could be a reason North Korea still hates America due to Curtis' brutality. Perhaps I'm wrong, but who knows how many grudges have led into something more and caused wars between nations' leaders or perhaps even superpowers in history? Civilian deaths are almost impossible to justify unless it genuinely saved more lives in the long run in my opinion, which I highly doubt if he killed potentially 20% of North Korea's populus and bombed Japan. Deaths aside, what about the economic and diplomatic damage that's caused by these wars and genocides of civilians?
Also would be interesting if you would do a segment on Operation Downfall, USA invasion of Japan. Look at the numbers if projected dead on both sides. Also you mentioned Japan’s concerns do fighting USSR the back story fir this fear is many
sided. The beginning of the cold war were smoking after the last conference of the big three. Your teams work are some of the best I view on RUclips.
Alex onetwothree - It nice to have goals. 😋 I’m a firm believer in diversity, there is a reason we are all different, it works best. That neighbor you hate, come war time he will be your best friend. I’ve never been a soldier, but I recognize that in a pickle... you don’t want nice ones. I remember a Vietnam vet sharing one of his regrets over beers. He was one of those dropped alone behind the lines whose job it was to find his way home and cause as much havoc as possible on the way. He told of being on a trail and running into a very young man. They stopped stared, the kid was wide-eyed and he didn’t shoot, he let the kid pass. I said that’s not a regret! He just stared at me and continued, that kid went back to his village and told them of his location and hell followed him for the next three days. He was injured, but survived, barely. He says his humanity almost cost him his life, that he was naive. My point is... horrible as they may be, the Col. LeMay’s of this world serve a purpose, we can hate them later, decry their methods, but at the same time we must sadly admit at the moment... they were needed. We can curse ourselves for their tactics, their actions, but we must also realize if we put mean badass men in horrible fight or die circumstances, WE are to blame. That we don’t speak Japanese or German is thanks to them. That Germany and Japan are still their respective countries called by the same names should give us comfort, we did the right thing in the end.
And yes, look at 911 as an example. One of the interviews aired with a 911 attacker/assistant that helped them but didn’t board a plane stays with me. When asked why he decided to be a terrorist, he replied Terrorist? Allah BLESSED our actions! YOU had no right to stop us or hold me! My children’s children’s (x4) children will seek revenge for your actions. Think on that... We caught him after he helped to kill over 2,000 people, and HIS children will seek revenge. He explained further and it sent a chill up my spine understanding his perspective, Allah is in charge and knows everything, if Allah didn’t bless it Allah would have stopped it. As they were allowed them to continue with and execute their plans, Allah blessed it, all of it. That we were trying to prosecute HIM, was unthinkable, he was doing Allah’s will and we just didn’t get it. I wonder about this world sometimes.
greenland and iceland is completely clean compared to the rest of the world.
@@0fficialdregs There are a lot of broken people in Greenland. Wouldn't call 'em saints but Denmark has a lot to answer for.
This is a completely ignorant analysis of the WW II situation that the US had to deal with. You can’t have it both ways: if Tokyo was worse than atomic bombing, why didn’t the Japanese quit then? Have you heard of Iwo Jima? Kamikaze? What else could mil planners possibly conclude? Le May was doing his job. Awesomely. (Yes yes he was racist but that does not besmirch his job running USAAF is S Pacific.)
'Limited Warfare' is definitely not a concept LeMay subscribed to. He was a warrior for his time; there were awful warcrimes going on ALL over the world and he was not above using the same strategy to defeat our enemies completely. We can shake our heads ruefully at the lack of humanity in retrospect, but we must try to keep his actions within the context of his time and learn.
Exactly. Easy for us to sit on our couches and comment on RUclips. He was watching our boys go into the meat grinder and not come back. He knew what a land invasion would entail.
Le May was the Air Forces version of Patton.
And let's not forget the Japanese soldiers and officers were subscribers to total war as penned by Ludendorff
He saved many Allied lives. That is war. The US did not attack Japan at Pearl Harbor. Japan attacked the US.
Was the inspiration for Generals Buck Turgidson and Jack D. Ripper in Kubrick's film "Dr. Strangelove".
Another hit piece from a smarmy “journalist” who has never had to suffer through war or any hardship. The self loathing displayed by western commentators like this is insane.
Curtis Lemay was at JFK's autopsy and was involved in the cover up.
Do I detect a British accent here? Perhaps you haven't researched the exploits of "Bomber" Harris during the skirmish you guys had with the Germans from 1940-45. Does the "Bombing of Cologne ring a bell. Gen. LeMay like Gen. Patton was a great general who had a tough job to do in fighting the war, and he did a great job in doing it. As a retired USAF veteran I think this video and your bashing of a great American general is of very poor taste and heavily slanted with the current Liberal/Socialist thinking in Europe today. War is Hell and if you haven't experienced it first hand, don't go bashing our American Military Heroes!!!!
That dude was nuts !
Genius, but nuts too
Listen to Malcolm Gladwells 4 part podcast about him. Riveting
General LeMay would have insisted we bomb Hanoi and other Vietnamese cities relentlessly until the north surrendered. I’m not advocating for our involvement in the war just suggesting a method to win it swiftly and decisively. Think Japanese and German cities engulfed in flames from incessant incendiary bombing. Carefully contemplate war but go all out if it is truly necessary. If you do not have the stomach for winning at all costs you should probably seek another method to reach the desired outcome or leave alone completely.
Besides, I don’t appreciate a bald Brit who would likely be speaking German if it were not for the American GI whining about General LeMay and other effective US military leaders.
Isn't he the general that said " make the rubble bounce" to bomber pilots in ww2
Yup.
Berlin
Don’t start none, won’t be none
-rapper and U.S. general Curtis LeMay III
Simon, remind me who attacked who and started the war here?
Ends don't justify the means here, soldiers kill soldiers, not women and children.
@@captindo Most of those soldiers who lives were saved, were actually civilians until thye had to be drafted because the Japanese dragged us into the war. I'd gather most of them would have liked to be home with their sweethearts and families instead of being thrust into the war.
@@captindo Actually in war, the ends do justify the means. That's the nature of total war.
Not being the one declaring the war does not acquit a nation of the war crimes and atrocities commited by it.
@@FelixIakhos Ever notice that there weren't any war crimes trials held against Japan? Ever wonder why?
This is a very narrow view with half truths. Tokyo was firebombed because most of the Japanese war production was embedded in the civilian populations and precision bombing was not possible. Also, Roosevelt and Truman supported it. Dresden on the other hand, was firebombed simply to terrorize the population. Lemay also fully modernized Strategic Air Command. He airlifted food and fuel to West Berlin for 11 months due to a Soviet blockade after the war. Oh, he also received The Order of the Rising Sun by Japan. You should talk about all neat things Winston Churchill has done. Like being a racist, and advocating the use of chemical weapon against the Kurds, for a start.
Le May was indeed a great man. If he only could have convinced Kennedy to start a nuclear war with the USSR, things would have been much better now.
Lemay also thought that Kennedy's policies were too soft and would put the US in a position of losing a nuclear exchange, and that a pre-emptive strike against the Soviets was the best course of action to take. He also strove to keep the Air Force ready in case that option became available. This is why politicians are in charge, and the Military needs to stick to fighting a war, and to not get involved with political decisions. The Joint Chiefs also proposed that we Nuke an American city and blame it on them, to which Kennedy just looked at them dumbfounded and total amazement. Needless to say, Kennedy rejected the plan outright.
USA could have smashed Russia then
palabras de un asesor de JFK sobre una duda de su presidente; ¿Pertenecen estas persona a la raza humana?
War is not a picnic, you do whatever you have to, to win, and if that means killing innocent people...OH WELL.
General LeMay himself said that he’d be tried a war criminal if his side lost. Still I have to point out that His motivation for these horrific acts isn’t fueled by ideology but by a cold hearted strategic thinking.
yeah because he was one of the very few people who realized war and the real world doesnt give a damn about ideals.
Cause that makes it ok lol
@@muzzer5327 Yes
The host needs to do some research (I.e some reading) on his subject and the era leading up to and including World War Two! Your remarks sir and this very abbreviated biography are garbage!
I live in a small town near STRATCOM ,( Strategic Air Command) . We have a street named after him in his honor.
He needs more then just a street named after him. He needs a whole town.
@@tonyanderson5585 You are a special type..
@@gmoney4980 Thank you I just wish everyone was as smart as me.
@@tonyanderson5585 tRump is almost as smart as you, almost.
Tony Anderson Name a city LeMayville, segregate it, stock pile Napalm, then bomb the non-white side of town into the next century.
The industries were scattered all over Japan. I'll worry about it when the Japanese apologize for Nanking.
To defeat a monster , you need to be a monster. The Japanese Imperial Army was a monster of epic proportions. The degree of sadistic brutality they employed was without precedent in modern history. After witnessing the atrocities they perpetrated, nothing was too horrific to use against them in order to defeat them. If they had won, they would have slaughtered the survivors, civilian or military personnel, of all the countries they were at war with. They would have killed anyone who was not Japanese except those they chose to enslave. That is absolutely the course of action Japan would have taken and they needed to be stopped by any means necessary, including their own vile tactics. Remember they cared nothing about human lives, including those of their own citizens, as evidenced by their refusal to surrender after the first atomic detonation, thereby subjecting their own people to a second atomic blast. History needs to be remembered accurately and without bias. War is Hell, and no country acted so Hellishly as Japan,. Yes Germany acted heinously, because Hitler was a crazed and evil dictator. Japans atrocities were part of a carefully thought out and executed strategy developed by its hawks and sanctioned by it's rulers.
If you are a monster, why should you win the war? I think you need to change the dealer.
It is so easy to take any part/figure of world war 2 out of context and parade the barbarity of it - the whole affair was utterly tragic and devastating to humanity. These 'facts' themselves are debatable - to suggest he had a "focus on civilian cities and installations" when the military industrial capability of Japan was dispersed into its civilian infrastructure is misleading.
It is very easy for you to moralise, judge and ridicule their decisions from the comfort and safety of our times. Lemay and his contemporaries did what it took to win the war - why on earth would they regret this?
"Bombs Away LeMay". Brutal man, but necessary in times of war. If I were president and assembling a war cabinet, I would include him. War criminal or not, he got things done and didn't shirk at making the hard decisions.
You can surely find ways to justify his bombing campaigns against Japan because of how brutal the Japanese were, but lets not forget that if he had been in charge during the Cuban Missile Crisis we probably wouldnt be here today, or at least the world would be a totally different one.
@@captainmacmillan1752 He wasn't "in charge" during WW2 either. LeMay had superiors who ultimately gave him his orders, including Mr. New Deal himself, President FD Roosevelt. Truman was barely in his first term when the Japanese surrendered so you can pretty well rest assured that it was FDR who was bombing Japan, not LeMay...
The dream team would be Patton for the Army, McArthur for the Marines (I know he was in the Army) LaMay for the AirForce, and Nimitz for the navy. Give me that war cabinet and there is no war they couldn't win.
A video by Neville Chamberlain's family
Although this video attacks General Le May unfairly for his actions in WW2 that is not the greatest problem with it. The greatest problem is that it simply repeats the same lie about the overwhelming effect that the atomic bomb had on the willingness of Japan to continue the war. It fails to consider the attitude of the Japanese leadership and Japanese people’s attitude toward surrender. As allied forces fought their way across the Pacific, it became clear that the Japanese simply did not surrender. Every island battle resulted in the Annihilation of entire Japanese garrisons. Those who did not die in battle committed suicide rather than surrender. The closer the allies came to the home islands the greater the losses not just for our forces but also for the Japanese troops defending those islands. It was slaughter. Once Okinawa was secured, Operation Downfall was planned. We prepared to suffer hundreds of thousands of US casualties in order to win the war with Japan. We also prepared to see the slaughter of not just the Japanese military forces but also of civilians who were preparing to fight off US Marines with bamboo spears! US losses may have been as great as 1 million casualties. Japanese losses would have been in the many millions! Ending the war quickly and without invasion was the best possible outcome. The argument that it was the Russian entry into the war was the deciding factor in the Japanese surrender has no basis in fact. It was certainly a grave concern but no more so than an invasion by US forces. It took the Japanese time to understand the power of the atomic bomb. It took them ever more time to accept defeat. Ultimately, it was the Atomic Bomb that caused them to surrender. The proof of this is clearly stated in Hirohito’s speech to the Japanese people. He said; “Moreover, the enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is, indeed, incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.
Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, nor to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors? This is the reason why we have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the joint declaration of the powers”. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan was the most humanitarian act of World War Two. It saved millions of US and Japanese lives. It defeated one of the most evil and immoral regimes in history. This video would now look at the use of the bomb as some great immoral act. In reality, anything that ended the war without invasion was completely moral.
They didn't care about your bombs. They had endured many bombings and the A-bombs was no different. The Russians wiping out the whole Kwantung army in less than a week was much more worrisome for them.
Also it wasn't needed to end the war, Tran just had to say theire emperor would be ok as they'd been asking for a long time. Hiroshima and Nagasaki was show off for Stalin, there's nothing humanitarian in it.
@@josecipriano3048 bwahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahah
@@josecipriano3048 Your funny stupid but funny.
Maybe only historian on you tube with an axe to grind....so critical those who saved his country ..I'm getting sick of simon
Gee Simon, tell us how the author really feels about “Bombs Away”.
You are entitled to your opinions, no matter how wrong they are, you conveniently forget the atrocities committed by the Japanese and the Germans, the bombing of London, the Bataan Death March.
LeMay was our top warrior, God Bless him.
Blatant Whataboutism.
Justifying one atrocity by pointing out another does not make your atrocity any less of an atrocity.
I know that the IJA committed all these crimes. That changes nothing. Curtis LeMay is still as much an unprosecuted War Criminal, just like Unit 731.
Charles "I swear there was a city here yesterday" Lemay
If this host was in charge, he’d be speaking German.
Rod Steiger in Mars Attacks!
Nobody here after reading how he is one of the guys responsible for Kennedys death
Motto of the Strategic Air Command is "Peace is our Profession" and LeMay was the father of SAC. The concept of building a force significant enough to encourage an adversary not to attack the US can only be backed up with historical examples. Once a brutal adversary begins a campaign thankfully we are equally brutal to find peace. Your viewpoints seem to be lopsided with a goal to support your title. He fully sought peace unless we were at war or the possibility of war. War is not for nice guys. They are trying to kills us and forcing us to surrender our will to continue the fight. Where would we be without warriors.
He understood the brutality of war. He just had a problem with the subtleties of politics. He didn't always connect political negotiation with peace and reduction in tensions. He just thought of politicians and diplomats as a bunch of pansies trying to talk their way out of a cave full of hungry bears (the Russians). His solution was to blow up the cave full of bears, if they got out of hand.