The feedback to my article in the Wall Street Journal, LeMay and the Tragedy of War, was extensive and provocative.
You can read all the feedback here. A few highlights are republished below.
wcmeier:
No one born after 1960 can have the understanding, nor the right to judge the actions of the American people as represented by their government and enacted by their elected officials and military leaders, with regard to the actions taken to end World War II. To have read about the unjust suffering and loss of life or to have heard about such things through the mellowed memories of a grandfather who served can not approach the ongoing brutal reality of 1945 with only the possibility of thousands more to die. President Truman and our military leaders such as Curtis LeMay were, are and will always be American heros in using what ever force necessary to bring WW II to an end. No apologies, second guessing, or what ifs are necessary or acceptable from our present day leaders who can’t possibly have a clue of what it was like, nor the spine to have persevered.
dana6:
The painful reality I have come to accept is this: Too many people in this country are living in a dreamland. They refuse to acknowledge the existence of evil. They honestly believe that the only threats to their existence come from failing appreciate other cultures. People (and nations) who wish to fight back are evil. Everything in their minds is negotiable.
The demonization of anyone with an opposing point of view has been accelerating at an alarming pace. So here we are, with a President who feels he must apologize to the world for our “boorishness.” And another disturbing trend are the verbally violent media assaults on any female who speaks out of turn. It had seemed for just a while there, that we were heading towards sexual equality. Just a mirage, though. Slowly, the party in power is working to silence all other voices.
All these loud-mouthed pundits and hypocritical politicians who feel we should act kindly and gently when it comes to dealing with potential terrorists – they all remind me of people who think meat is is created wrapped in clear plastic on supermarket shelves. These people are just as emotionally detached from the reality of war. You’re in a battle to save your life and the lives of your loved ones. Wars for survival are not fought with a minimum of force. You fight as hard as you can.
Sadly, this is going to be a lesson learned the hard way. There are too many Americans who can’t bring themselves to believe anyone else in the world but other Americans would plot something as dreadful as 9-11. Most modern wars happen because people wait too long to acknowledge the threat. They choose to believe smiles and lies and distraction. They always prefer to believe the best of others yet the worst of themselves. They are, inevitably, rudely awakened.
slomatch:
How times change when every action is politicized at the expense of the resolution of potentially catastrophic conflict. Many thanks to the author for an important history lesson.
Susanne Lomatch
Boise, Idaho
dbeeth:
The greatest tragedy of WWII would have been if we had not won decisively. If you doubt this think on how different the last 60 years would have been if the Allies (principally the US and British Commonwealth countries) had been driven out of Europe and Asia and the world had been left a battleground between Imperial Japan and the winner between Nazi Germany and the Communist USSR.
Another cosideration before damning LeMay for the fire bombings is that we had already in WWI tried mere ‘regime change’ with Germany and the peace that followed had not lasted. America and its allies in WWII knew that this second time around had to convince the whole nation that another war was a very bad idea or there would be a third time around.
Moreover, we and the world should be very grateful that the USA won the race for the nuclear bomb; and that Truman had the courage to use the only two he had in a bold gamble to persuade Emperor Hirohito and his adoring population that continuing the war was a bad idea.
A collateral benefit was that without dropping the A-bombs on Japan, Germany’s surrender could have only paused the hot war in Europe until Stalin tried to conquer Europe. Remember that apart from historical ambition, Napoleon and Hitler had given the Russians grounds to fear the Europeans. However, Stalin knew that we had the Bomb, he didn’t, that before he could build some some we would have lots of them, and that for as long as American troops were stationed along his border with Europe an attack on western Europe would first have to kill nuclear armed Americans who had already used the Bomb in war, and therefore attacking Americans was a really bad idea. OK, we had cold war until 1989, but that was a lot better than a hot war.
I just wish Eisenhower had had a few nukes before D-Day. If so there would likely be lot fewer white crosses in Europe with Americans and our allies under them, and Stalin could likely have been persuaded to not enslave Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia et al. And who knows, had we nuked Dresden rather than firebomging it, Japan might have surrendered earlie with the result that we would have a lot more chidren and granchildren who are not waling around because their fathers and grand fathers lie under some plain white cross somewhere.
No slogan can encompass all of an effective foreign policy strategy. However, then as now, there are worse ways to start than with the US Marine’s slogan, “No better friend and no worse enemy.”
LeMay continued his career after WWII as commander of the Strategic Air Comman (SAC). SAC’s mission was to be ready to wage nuclear war on an instant’s notice and to that end SAC had nuclear armed heavy bombers in the air 24/7. SAC’s motto was “Peace Is Our Profession.” Those who, along with General LeMay, realize that weakness invites war and strength discourages war will understand this motto.
Whatever criticism may be leveled at Curtis LeMay, the fact is that no SAC bomber ever needed to drope a nuclear bomb in anger.
I was 11 years old on VJ day and in the years following I can remember sharing with many of my generation the belief that we would likely die in a nuclear war by the age of 25 or 30. We were wrong, and for that happy error my generation may owe a far greater debt than we realize to cigar chompin’ Curtis.
Mike Boone:
What a great article. Can anybody imagine the uproar that would come today from The New York Times, the New Yorker, and others if we did the same to our enemies today? These same publications who so loved America and what we stood for back then (and now actually) would sooner smear our government today. Sometimes, there are things worth fighting for. Had we embraced liberal philosphy in the 1930’s and 40’s, what a different place America would be today. America would not even exist.
Robert Aldrich:
As the son of one of those GIs who probably would have been sent ashore against the Japanese homeland, I can only breath a sigh of relief that General LeMay had the courage to do what had to be done. Japan had indeed run ripshod across most of Asia for the ten years prior and nothing short of bringing the Japanese homeland to its knees would have stopped her.
General LeMay was the “right guy, at the right time.” General LeMay was famous for smoking cigars in close proximity to fully fueled aircraft and fueling trucks. My step father who was a B-29 pilot always said the planes and trucks “wouldn’t dare to explode.”
All of this talk that we seem to be engaging in these days of accusing our forefathers of war crimes is sheer and utter nonsense. It does nothing except deflect attention away from the problems that we face today. We should spend more time protecting our constitution and freedoms. Bravo to Mr. Kozak for putting General LeMay’s actions in the proper context of the time.