Posted on 12/25/2012 2:03:49 PM PST by virgil283
"...I was surprised to find out that LeMay wasn’t at all the man I thought he was … and I didn’t think he got a fair shake in history. Here is a man who has been marginalized and even vilified as this mad bomber yearning for a nuclear exchange with the Soviets. Hollywood helped solidify that negative image with Dr. Strangelove ..and he became a favorite target for journalists beginning in the 1960s. In truth, the real LeMay couldn’t have been further from the crazy brute that he’s been made out to be. He was a sober, strategic realist, who cared deeply for the men who served under him and for the country he defended. LeMay was perhaps the most brilliant military strategist this nation has ever produced – not my words but those of the late Robert S. McNamara. And LeMay was brave. He put his own life at risk insisting on flying the lead bomber on every dangerous mission over Europe. He was one of the most influential factors in our victory in the Pacific Theater. And if that weren’t enough, LeMay had a third act that equaled the first two, helping to win the Cold War by turning the Strategic Air Command into the most efficient and deadliest military force in history that kept the Soviets in check for decades. .... ..On his very first mission, LeMay ordered everyone to fly straight in with no deviation so they could hit the targets. The men were horrified. One pilot stood up at the pre-flight briefing and said they’d all be slaughtered. LeMay looked straight at him and, showing the most brilliant form of leadership, simply said: “No, I think we can take it and to prove it, I’ll fly the lead plane.”
(Excerpt) Read more at frontpagemag.com ...
He moderated later, though. His '63-'67 term as governor included the "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" inauguration speech. This was the term where he stood in the doorway at the University of Alabama to prevent black students from enrolling.
Kennedy then federalized the Alabama National Guard in order to have the necessary force to make him do the right thing, so Wallace's action was another case of misusing conservative principles (state sovereignty) in an execrable cause. As usually happens, this allows liberals to shred these principles so they're not available when we need them.
Segregationists delayed my embrace of conservative truths for more than a decade. So in the late seventies, while Wallace was already taking actions to be proud of due to his change of heart, I was still voting for liberals. So you can see why I would be bitter about this. :-)
LeMay Ping
It isn’t uncommon for someone with a genius for military matters to be foolish in politics. I started in TAC, not SAC, but LeMay was a great general. Unhappily, he wouldn’t last 30 minutes in today’s politicized military - but God knows we need men like him.
Given the moral course of this country, though, I don’t see any change likely ahead. I spent 20 years cheerfully recommending the military to others. By the end of my 25, I had to stop. Now I recommend against it. And it breaks my heart to say so...
I’m with you, Mr. Rogers. It was like a mantra with me: “Going nowhere? Want to make something of yourself? Join the military.” No more.
LeMay has been one of my heros for years. His ideas would have turned Korea into a victory rather than a constant threat and stale mate. Vietnam would have been a victory rather than a loss. We would have won the cold war many years earlier. Terrorists would have been afraid to attack us.
Plus; he loved good cigars :-)
And that's what they and their "progressive" successors have done and are still doing. Prime example: Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Thanks for putting this one up. I never thought much about LeMay. Now I must find a good biography and some more.
There was a great bio on LeMay in Cigar Magazine (now defunct) a couple years ago.
“segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
I believe Wallace was a Dimacrat. In fact it was the Dims that tried to block all civil rights legislation in the 60’s. This includes Algore’s daddy and Bill Clinton’s mentor.
So how exactly did LeMay’s run with Wallace keep you away from Conservatives for a decade? This does not compute....
Bookmarked. Great thread. More winter reading, thanks.
Although the thread is about LeMay, I was responding only to the statement that Wallace was a moderate on race in the ‘60s. I tried to take LeMay out of it by quoting the statement I was responding to, but just so I am absolutely clear, I was only talking about Wallace.
(In fact, one of the pleasant discoveries I made in my journey out of liberalism was your point that segregation was overthrown primarily by Republicans following Declaration principles.)
What did segregation have to do with conservative truths? And did the liberals you voted for include Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.)? This champion of the Communist-appeasing Left was a hard-core segregationist.
Not much. Remember there was no lively conservative media then, so I only had the MSM to learn from while growing up. They called segregationists conservatives, like they now paint fraudulent bankers as conservatives. And they distorted any actual useful conservative principles like State Sovereignty, by pointing only to the abuses such as segregation. I hope you don’t think I am blind to the follies of my youth.
I imagine your journey makes you more perceptive than most conservatives out there.
Thanks for the ping. General LeMay was a brilliant strategist during and after the Second World War. This country owes him a large debt of gratitude which it doesn’t want to acknowledge.
Thanks virgil283.
Try his autobiography - it’s even better.
I think it was his autobiography I read.
“Mission With LeMay”?
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