7 LeMay had been running the show: The background on LeMay in Guam is from Curtis LeMay with MacKinlay Kantor, Mission with LeMay: My Story (New York: Doubleday and Company, 1965), pp. 342–347, and Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 146–147.
8 Sensing impatience from Washington: Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 155–156. 8 At about 2 a.m.: Ibid., p. 163.
8 When World War II began: Background on the AAF and long-range strategic bombing comes from many sources, including Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, chap. 1; author’s interview with Jerome Martin, August 26, 2005; Walton S. Moody, Building a Strategic Air Force (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1996), chap. 1; Richard H. Kohn and Joseph P. Harahan, eds., Strategic Air Warfare: An Interview with Generals Curtis E. LeMay, Leon W
Johnson, David Burchinal, and Jack Catton (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1988).
9 an assignment to a bomber crew: The dangers of flying in a World War II bomber are covered in Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, chap. 1, and Coffey, Iron Eagle, chaps. 5 and 6. 9 the 100th Bomber Group lost seven planes: Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 99–100.
9 Bomber crews were more likely: Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, p. 8.
10 A stricken B-17: Coffey, Iron Eagle, p. 86.
10 LeMay, head of the 4th Bombardment Wing: The background on LeMay in England comes from Coffey, Iron Eagle, chaps. 5 and 6, and Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, pp. 19–47.
11 The Navy brass, riding high: Coffey, Iron Eagle, p. 145.
11 In a city like Tokyo: The details on the firebombing of Tokyo come from Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 164–165; Bruce Rae, “300 B-29’s Fire 15 Square Miles of Tokyo,” The New York Times, March 10, 1945, p. 1; Warren Moscow, “Center of Tokyo Devastated by Firebombs,” The New York Times, March 11, 1945, p. 1. See also “American Experience: Victory in the Pacific” and Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (New York: Simon &Schuster, 1995), pp. 17–24.
12 “When you kill 100,000 people”: Drea, quoted in “American Experience: Victory in the Pacific.”
12 “No matter how you slice it”: LeMay, Mission with LeMay, p. 352.
12 When the B-29s returned from Tokyo: Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 166–172.
12 By summer, LeMay announced: Ibid., p. 174.
13 “I think it’s more immoral”: LeMay, Mission with LeMay, p. 382.
13 It was far more humane: Ibid., p. 384.
13 LeMay attended the Japanese surrender ceremonies: Ibid., p. 390.
13 the atomic bombs had been impressive but anticlimactic: Curtis LeMay, U.S. Air Force Oral History, January 1965 (AFHRA). See also Coffey, Iron Eagle, p. 179; Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, p. 25; Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun, pp. 17–24.
13 In the months after VJ Day: Background on the AAF drive for independence comes from Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 27–34; “LeMay Discusses Air War of Future,” The New York Times, November 20, 1945, p. 3; John Stuart, “Army Air Leaders Want U.S. on Guard for Sudden Attack,” The New York Times, October 2, 1945, p. 1; and author’s interview with Jerome Martin, August 26, 2005.
13 The famed pilot Jimmy Doolittle: Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 30–31.
14 “Being peace-loving and weak”: Stuart, “Army Air Leaders Want U.S. on Guard for Sudden Attack.”
14 With the Army’s blessing: Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, p. 31.
14 The Air Force started life: E-mail, Jerome Martin to author, March 10, 2008.
14 they saw SAC as the key: Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 30–33.
14 Not that there was much to grab: Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 27–29; author’s interview with Jerome Martin, August 26, 2005; Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, pp. 73–
75, 82.
14 “We just walked away”: Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, p. 74.
14 “We started from nothing”: Ibid., p. 82.
14 SAC floundered: Ibid., pp. 73–78; and Jerome Martin interview, August 26, 2005. For a deeper discussion of SAC’s postwar troubles, see Harry R. Borowski, A Hollow Threat: Strategic Air Power and Containment before Korea (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982).
14 But by 1948: A good introduction to the Berlin Crisis and the early Cold War can be found in John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History (New York: Penguin Press, 2005), chap. 3.
15 On October 19, 1948: Lloyd, A Cold War Legacy, p. 666.
15 The situation shocked him: Curtis LeMay, U.S. Air Force Oral History Interview, March 9, 1971 (AFHRA); Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, pp. 78–84; Coffey, Iron Eagle, pp. 271–
276; LeMay, Mission with LeMay, pp. 429–447; Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 58–63.
15 “We had to be ready”: Curtis LeMay, U.S. Air Force Oral History Interview, March 9, 1971, p.
29 (AFHRA).
15 LeMay sprang into action: LeMay’s transformation of SAC is discussed in Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp. 59–63; Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, pp. 78–84; Karen Salisbury,
“Defense: Bombers at the Ready,” Newsweek, April 18, 1949, pp. 24–26.
15 Power was not well liked: Coffey, Iron Eagle, p. 276; Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, pp.
81–82.
16 “My goal”: Kohn and Harahan, Strategic Air Warfare, p. 84.
16 he had created a religion: LeMay explains his theories on deterrence in his autobiography, Mission with LeMay, as well the oral histories he recorded for the Air Force. In Strategic Air Warfare, p. 97, Kohn and Harahan recorded a telling exchange between LeMay and Kohn: KOHN: Was it difficult because it was peacetime, or was there no sense of peacetime in SAC… LEMAY: It was wartime.
17 The year 1952 began the golden age: A detailed discussion of SAC’s rise to power can be found in Worden, Rise of the Fighter Generals, chaps. 3 and 4. For Eisenhower’s views on nuclear war, see Gaddis, The Cold War, pp. 66–68. For an overview of Americans’
