108-435: Total war refers to a military conflict of unlimited scope. Total War may also refer to: Total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all (including civilian -associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets , mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs. The term has been defined as "A war that
216-406: A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , he helped locate the battleship Utah despite being given the wrong coordinates by Navy personnel, in exercises held in misty conditions off California, after which the group of B-17s bombed it with water bombs. In March 1938, LeMay as a member of the 2nd Bombardment Group participated in a good will flight to Buenos Aires. For this flight, the 2nd Bombardment Group
324-517: A French History professor at Princeton University argues that the French Revolutionary Wars introduced to mainland Europe some of the first concepts of total war, such as mass conscription. He claims that the new republic found itself threatened by a powerful coalition of European nations and used the entire nation's resources in an unprecedented war effort that included levée en masse (mass conscription). By 23 August 1793,
432-1001: A bachelor's degree in civil engineering. While at Ohio State he was a member of the National Society of Pershing Rifles and the Professional Engineering Fraternity Theta Tau . LeMay was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve in October 1929. He received a regular commission in the United States Army Air Corps in January 1930. While finishing at Ohio State, he took flight training at Norton Field in Columbus, in 1931–32. On June 9, 1934, he married Helen Maitland. LeMay became
540-533: A pursuit pilot with his first duty station at Selfridge Field with the 27th Pursuit Squadron . After having served in various assignments in fighter operations, LeMay transferred to bomber aircraft in 1937. While stationed in Hawaii , he became one of the first members of the Air Corps to receive specialized training in aerial navigation. In August 1937, as navigator under pilot and commander Caleb V. Haynes on
648-544: A SAC hangar full of US nuclear strategic bombers, LeMay found a single Air Force sentry on duty, unarmed. After ordering a mock bombing exercise on Dayton, Ohio , LeMay was shocked to learn that most of the strategic bombers assigned to the mission missed their targets by one mile or more. "We didn't have one crew, not one crew, in the entire command who could do a professional job", noted LeMay. A meeting in November 1948, with Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg , found
756-491: A chance to see animals and the countryside, often for the first time, and experience rural life. The use of statistical analysis, by a branch of science which has become known as Operational Research to influence military tactics, was a departure from anything previously attempted. It was a very powerful tool but it further dehumanised war particularly when it suggested strategies that were counter-intuitive. Examples, where statistical analysis directly influenced tactics include
864-527: A conventional mechanized offensive that was by its nature more reliant on industrial output and traditional logistics. In effect, Johnson and Nixon were waging two different wars. Because of his unrelenting opposition to the Johnson administration's Vietnam policy and what was widely perceived as his hostility to McNamara, LeMay was essentially forced into retirement in February 1965. Moving to California, he
972-599: A crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways. After the war, he was assigned to command USAF Europe and coordinated the Berlin Airlift . He served as commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) from 1948 to 1957, where he presided over the transition to an all– jet aircraft force that had a strong emphasis on the delivery of nuclear weapons in the event of war. As Chief of Staff of
1080-566: A food crisis in Germany. Almost the whole of Europe and some of the European colonial empires mobilised soldiers. Rationing occurred on the home fronts. Bulgaria went so far as to mobilise a quarter of its population, or 800,000 people, a greater share of its population than any other country during the war. The Second World War was the quintessential total war of modernity. The level of national mobilisation of resources on all sides of
1188-451: A high priority by assigning the entire 313th Bombardment Wing (four groups, about 160 airplanes) to the task. Aerial mining supplemented a tight Allied submarine blockade of the home islands, drastically reducing Japan's ability to supply its overseas forces to the point that postwar analysis concluded that it could have defeated Japan on its own had it begun earlier. LeMay piloted one of three specially modified B-29s flying from Japan to
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#17327718380181296-538: A means of diverting resources from the front line. We who strike the enemy where his heart beats have been slandered as 'baby killers' ... Nowadays, there is no such animal as a noncombatant. Modern warfare is total warfare. One of the features of total war in Britain was the use of government propaganda posters to divert all attention to the war on the home front . Posters were used to influence public opinion about what to eat and what occupations to take, and to change
1404-525: A modern, efficient, all-jet force. LeMay's tenure was the longest over an American military command in nearly 100 years. LeMay was instrumental in SAC's acquisition of a large fleet of new strategic bombers , establishment of a vast aerial refueling system, the formation of many new units and bases, development of a strategic ballistic missile force, and establishment of a strict command and control system with an unprecedented readiness capability. All of this
1512-592: A profound impact on the outcome of the conflict but also produces significant changes in the political, cultural, economic, and social realms beyond the end of the conflict. As Peccia puts it, "total war is an earthquake that has the world as its epicenter." The four dimensions of total war identified by Förster are: 1) Total purposes: The aim of continuous growth of the power of the parties involved and hegemonic visions. 2) Total methods: Similar and common methodologies among countries that intend to increase their spheres of influence. 3) Total mobilisation: Inclusion in
1620-463: A short time. But eventually, national conscription was introduced in Canada in 1944, as well as dramatically increased taxation, another symbol of the "total war effort". The Soviet Union (USSR) was a command economy which already had an economic and legal system allowing the economy and society to be redirected into fighting a total war. The transportation of factories and whole labour forces east of
1728-405: A single day, the attack will have served its purpose". The argument was that it was his duty to carry out the attacks in order to end the war as quickly as possible, sparing further loss of life. He also remarked regarding the morality of the air effort against Japan, "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal ." This opinion was also reported by Robert McNamara in
1836-526: A tactic senior commanders had been preparing for some time, manufacturing and stockpiling incendiary bombs for this purpose. Japanese cities were largely constructed of combustible materials such as wood and paper. Precision high-altitude daylight bombing was ordered to proceed only when weather permitted or when specific critical targets were not vulnerable to area bombing . LeMay commanded subsequent B-29 Superfortress combat operations against Japan, including massive incendiary attacks on 67 Japanese cities and
1944-521: A total war in the nuclear age would consist of delivering the entire nuclear arsenal in a single overwhelming blow, going as far as "killing a nation". Written by academics at Eastern Michigan University , the Cengage Advantage Books: World History textbook claims that while total war "is traditionally associated with the two global wars of the twentieth century... it would seem that instances of total war predate
2052-595: A war with the Soviets and their industry would quickly recover. This committee had been specifically created by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the effects of a massive nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, within weeks, an ad hoc Joint Chiefs committee recommended tripling America's nuclear arsenal, and Air Force Chief of Staff Vandenberg called for enough bombs to attack 220 targets, up from
2160-600: A war." Towards this aim, LeMay delivered the first SAC Emergency War Plan in March 1949 which called for dropping 133 atomic bombs on 70 cities in the USSR within 30 days. LeMay predicted that World War III would last no longer than 30 days. Air power strategists called this type of pre-emptive strike "killing a nation". However, the Harmon committee released their unanimous report two months later stating such an attack would not end
2268-401: Is important to recognize, however, that ballistic missile forces represent both the U.S. and Soviet potential for strategic nuclear warfare at the highest, most indiscriminate level, and at a level least susceptible to control. The employment of these weapons in lower level conflict would be likely to escalate the situation, uncontrollably, to an intensity which could be vastly disproportionate to
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#17327718380182376-436: Is important". Aircraft losses on tactical attack missions soared, and Air Force commanders soon realized that their large, missile-armed jet fighters were exceedingly vulnerable not only to antiaircraft shells and missiles but also to cannon-armed, maneuverable Soviet fighters. LeMay advocated a sustained strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnamese cities, harbors, ports, shipping, and other strategic targets. His advice
2484-504: Is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded." In the mid-19th century, scholars identified what later became known as total war as a separate class of warfare. In a total war, the differentiation between combatants and non-combatants diminishes due to the capacity of opposing sides to consider nearly every human, including non-combatants, as resources that are used in
2592-630: The Berlin Airlift in 1948 in the face of a blockade by the Soviet Union and its satellite states that threatened to starve the civilian population of the Western occupation zones of Berlin. Under his direction, Douglas C-54 Skymasters that could each carry 10 tons of cargo began supplying the city on July 1. By late 1948, the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day with 500 daily flights. The airlift continued for 11 months, with 213,000 flights operated by six countries bringing in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. Faced with
2700-639: The Liberal government and Premiership of H. H. Asquith . He formed a new coalition government dominated by Liberals and appointed David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions . It was a recognition that the whole economy would have to be geared for war if the Allies were to prevail on the Western Front. Carl Schmitt , a supporter of Nazi Germany , wrote that total war meant "total politics"—authoritarian domestic policies that imposed direct control of
2808-586: The Pacific theater of World War II . He later served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force , from 1961 to 1965. LeMay joined the United States Army Air Corps , the precursor to the United States Air Force, in 1929 while studying civil engineering at Ohio State University . He had risen to the rank of major by the time of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and
2916-783: The Shōwa era , the government of Imperial Japan launched a string of policies to promote a total war effort against China and occidental powers and increase industrial production. Among these were the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement and the Imperial Rule Assistance Association . The State General Mobilization Law had fifty clauses, which provided for government controls over civilian organisations (including labour unions ), nationalisation of strategic industries, price controls and rationing , and nationalised
3024-554: The United States Strategic Bombing Survey put the figures at 220,000 people killed. Some 40% of the built-up areas of 66 cities were destroyed, including much of Japan's war industry. LeMay was aware of the implication of his orders. The New York Times reported at the time, "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by
3132-716: The Urals as the Germans advanced across the USSR in 1941 was an impressive feat of planning. Only those factories which were useful for war production were moved because of the total war commitment of the Soviet government. The Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War II encompassed the conflict in central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941, to 9 May 1945. It was the largest theatre of war in history in terms of numbers of soldiers, equipment and casualties and
3240-476: The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . This included the firebombing of Tokyo —known in official documents as the "Operation Meetinghouse" air raid on the night of March 9–10, 1945—which proved to be the single most destructive bombing raid of the war. For this first attack, LeMay ordered the defensive guns removed from 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with Model M-47 incendiary clusters , magnesium bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and napalm , and ordered
3348-479: The news media . The laws gave the government the authority to use unlimited budgets to subsidise war production and to compensate manufacturers for losses caused by war-time mobilisation. Eighteen of the fifty articles outlined penalties for violators. To improve its production, Imperial Japan used millions of slave labourers and pressed more than 18 million people in East Asia into forced labour. Before
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3456-456: The war effort . Total war is a concept that has been extensively studied by scholars of conflict and war. One of the most notable contributions to this field of research is the work of Stig Förster, who has identified four dimensions of total war: total purposes, total methods, total mobilisation, and total control. Tiziano Peccia has built upon Förster's work by adding a fifth dimension of "total change." Peccia argues that total war not only has
3564-464: The " Ideas of 1914 ". As young men left the farms for the front, domestic food production in Britain and Germany fell. In Britain, the response was to import more food, which was done despite the German introduction of unrestricted submarine warfare , and to introduce rationing. The Royal Navy's blockade of German ports prevented Germany from importing food and hastened German capitulation by creating
3672-570: The 2003 documentary The Fog of War , although after the war the Allies did not prosecute any German or Japanese military personnel for bombing civilian targets. Presidents Roosevelt and Truman supported LeMay's strategy, referring to an estimate of one million Allied casualties if Japan had to be invaded . Japan had intentionally decentralized 90% of its war-related production into small subcontractor workshops in civilian districts, making remaining Japanese war industry largely immune to conventional precision bombing with high explosives . As
3780-673: The Air Force, he called for the bombing of Cuban missile sites during the Cuban Missile Crisis and sought a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War . After retiring from the Air Force in 1965, LeMay agreed to serve as pro- segregation Alabama Governor George Wallace 's running mate on the far-right American Independent Party ticket in the 1968 United States presidential election . The ticket won 46 electoral votes, 5 states, and 13.5% of
3888-775: The French and strip them of adequate supplies. In the campaign of 1813, Allied forces in the German theatre alone amounted to nearly one million whilst two years later in the Hundred Days a French decree called for the total mobilisation of some 2.5 million men (though at most a fifth of this was managed by the time of the French defeat at Waterloo ). During the prolonged Peninsular War from 1808 to 1814 some 300,000 French troops were kept permanently occupied by, in addition to several hundred thousand Spanish, Portuguese and British regulars, an enormous and sustained guerrilla insurgency—ultimately French deaths would amount to 300,000 in
3996-505: The French front line forces grew to some 800,000 with a total of 1.5 million in all services—the first time an army in excess of a million had been mobilised in Western history: From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions ;
4104-511: The Galapagos islands. By the end of 1940, he was stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base , as the operations officer of the 34th Bombardment Group . War brought rapid promotion and increased responsibility. When his crews were not flying missions, they were subjected to relentless training, as LeMay believed that training was the key to saving their lives. "You fight as you train" was one of his cardinal rules. It expressed his belief that, in
4212-617: The LeMay legend, and remains widely attributed to him ever after. Some military historians have argued that LeMay's theories were eventually proven correct. Near the war's end in December 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered Operation Linebacker II , a high-intensity Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aerial bombing campaign, which included hundreds of B-52 bombers that struck previously untouched North Vietnamese strategic targets, including heavy populated areas in Hanoi and Haiphong. Linebacker II
4320-672: The Peninsular War alone. The Franco-Prussian War was fought in breach of the recently signed Geneva Convention of 1864 , when "European opinion increasingly expected that civilians and soldiers should be treated humanely in war". The Sullivan Expedition of 1779 was an example of total warfare. As Native American and Loyalist forces massacred American farmers, killed livestock and burned buildings in remote frontier areas, General George Washington sent General John Sullivan with 4,000 troops to seek "the total destruction and devastation of their settlements" in upstate New York. There
4428-574: The Soviets and Chinese more directly into the war. In his 1965 autobiography (co-written with MacKinlay Kantor ), LeMay is quoted as saying his response to North Vietnam would be to demand that "they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression, or we're going to bomb them back into the Stone Age . And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces". LeMay subsequently rejected misquotes of
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4536-465: The U.S. Army had even reorganized its combat divisions to fight land wars on irradiated nuclear battlefields, developing short-range atomic cannon and mortars in order to win appropriations . The United States Navy in turn proposed delivering strategic nuclear weapons from supercarriers intended to sail into range of the Soviet air defense forces. Of all these various schemes, only LeMay's command structure of SAC survived complete reorganization in
4644-462: The U.S. in September 1945 , in the process breaking several aviation records, including the greatest USAAF takeoff weight, the longest USAAF non-stop flight, and the first ever non-stop Japan–Chicago flight. One of the pilots was of higher rank: Lieutenant General Barney M. Giles . The other two aircraft used up more fuel than LeMay's in fighting headwinds, and they could not fly to Washington, D.C.,
4752-582: The Union was "not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies," defending Sherman's March to the Sea , the operation that inflicted widespread destruction of infrastructure in Georgia. United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay updated the concept for the nuclear age . In 1949, he first proposed that
4860-658: The United States's entry into World War II. He commanded the 305th Bombardment Group from October 1942 until September 1943, and the 3rd Air Division in the European theatre of World War II until August 1944, when he was transferred to the China Burma India Theater . He was then placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a massive fire bombing campaign against Japanese cities, and Operation Starvation ,
4968-665: The air was adopted as a strategy for the first time in World War I, and a leading advocate of this strategy was Peter Strasser "Leader of Airships" ( Führer der Luftschiffe ; F.d.L. ). Strasser, who was chief commander of German Imperial Navy Zeppelins during World War I, the main force operating German strategic bombing across Europe and the UK, saw bombing of civilians as well as military targets as an essential element of total war. He argued that causing civilian casualties and damaging domestic infrastructure served both as propaganda and as
5076-664: The attitude of support towards the war effort. Even music halls were used as propaganda, with propaganda songs aimed at recruitment. After the failure of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle , the large British offensive in March 1915, the British Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal John French blamed the lack of progress on insufficient and poor-quality artillery shells . This led to the Shell Crisis of 1915 which brought down both
5184-599: The autumn of 1943 led the Eighth Air Force to limit missions to targets within escort range. Finally, with the deployment in the European theater of the P-51 Mustang in January 1944, the Eighth Air Force gained an escort fighter with range to match the bombers. In a discussion of a report into high abort rates in bomber missions during World War II, which Robert McNamara suspected was because of pilot cowardice, McNamara described LeMay's character: One of
5292-499: The basis for the "It wouldn't dare" comment. Sweeney stated that a similar incident occurred in 1944 when a B-29 crew chief reminded General LeMay of his lit cigar while LeMay was undergoing B-29 familiarization with (then-Colonel) Paul Tibbets ' 509th Composite Group . Despite his uncompromising attitude regarding performance of duty, LeMay was also known for his concern for the physical well-being and comfort of his men. LeMay found ways to encourage morale, individual performance, and
5400-434: The battlefield but solely on the home front . Therefore, Germany started the war under the concept which was later named blitzkrieg . Officially, it did not accept that it was in a total war until Joseph Goebbels ' Sportpalast speech of 18 February 1943—in which the crowd was told " Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg " ("Total War – Shortest War”.) Goebbels and Hitler had spoken in March 1942 about Goebbels' idea to put
5508-593: The bombers to fly in streams at 5,000 to 9,000 feet (1,500 to 2,700 m) over Tokyo. LeMay described Operation Meetinghouse by saying "the US had finally stopped swatting at flies and gone after the manure pile". The first pathfinder airplanes arrived over Tokyo just after midnight on March 10 and marked the target area with a flaming "X". In a three-hour period, the main bombing force dropped 1,665 tons of incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 civilians, destroying 250,000 buildings, and incinerating 16 square miles (41 km ) of
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#17327718380185616-472: The cabinet minister responsible for implementing conscription during the First World War , and advocated for conscription again. Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King argued that Canada could still be said to have a "total war effort" without conscription, and delivered nationally broadcast speeches to this effect 1942. Meighen failed to win his seat in by-election in 1942, and the issue subsided for
5724-463: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Maxwell Taylor . At the time, budget constraints and successive nuclear war fighting strategies had left the armed forces in a state of flux. Each of the armed forces had gradually jettisoned realistic appraisals of future conflicts in favor of developing its own separate nuclear and nonnuclear capabilities. At the height of this struggle,
5832-704: The changing reality of Cold War -era conflicts. LeMay was not an enthusiast of the ICBM program, considering ballistic missiles to be little more than toys and no substitute for the strategic nuclear bomber force. Though LeMay lost significant appropriation battles for the Skybolt ALBM and the proposed Boeing B-52 Stratofortress replacement, the North American XB-70 Valkyrie , he was largely successful at expanding Air Force budgets. Despite LeMay's disdain for missiles, he did strongly support
5940-499: The chaos, stress, and confusion of combat (aerial or otherwise), troops or airmen would perform successfully only if their individual acts were second nature, performed nearly instinctively due to repetitive training. Throughout his career, LeMay was widely and fondly known among his troops as "Old Iron Pants", and the "Big Cigar". When the U.S. entered World War II in December 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , LeMay
6048-530: The city. Aircrews at the tail end of the bomber stream reported that the stench of burned human flesh permeated the aircraft over the target. Precise figures are not available, but the strategic bombing campaign against Japan, directed by LeMay between March 1945 and the Japanese surrender in August 1945, may have killed more than 500,000 Japanese civilians and left five million homeless. Official estimates from
6156-453: The commanders was Curtis LeMay—Colonel in command of a B-24 [ sic ] group. He was the finest combat commander of any service I came across in war. But he was extraordinarily belligerent, many thought brutal. He got the report. He issued an order. He said, 'I will be in the lead plane on every mission. Any plane that takes off will go over the target, or the crew will be court-martialed.' The abort rate dropped overnight. Now that's
6264-564: The concept back as far as classic work of Carl von Clausewitz , On War , as "absoluter Krieg" ( absolute war ), even though he did not use the term; others interpret Clausewitz differently. Total war also describes the French "guerre à outrance" during the Franco-Prussian War . In his 24 December 1864 letter to his chief of staff during the American Civil War , Union general William Tecumseh Sherman wrote
6372-484: The conflict of parties not traditionally involved, such as women and children or individuals who are not part of the armed bodies. 4) Total control: Multisectoral centralisation of the powers and orchestration of the activities of the countries in a small circle of dictators or oligarchs, with cross-functional control over education and culture, media/propaganda, economic, and political activities. Peccia's contribution of "total change" adds to this framework by emphasising
6480-401: The conflict, the battlespace being contested, the scale of the armies , navies , and air forces raised through conscription , the active targeting of non-combatants (and non-combatant property), the general disregard for collateral damage , and the unrestricted aims of the belligerents marked total war on an unprecedented and unsurpassed, multicontinental scale. During the first part of
6588-499: The country was committing enough to mobilising its resources, rather than whether or not to target civilians of the enemy countries. During the early days of the Second World War, whether or not Canada was committed to a "total war effort" was point of partisan political debate between the governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives . The Conservatives elected as their national leader Arthur Meighen , who had been
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#17327718380186696-401: The countryside for compulsory billeting in households. In the long term this was one of the most profound and longer-lasting social consequences of the whole war for Britain. This is because it mixed up children with adults of other classes. Not only did the middle and upper classes become familiar with the urban squalor suffered by working class children from the slums , but the children got
6804-487: The doctrine of the short war was a continuing handicap for the Germans; neither plans nor state of mind were adjusted to the idea of a long war until the failure of the Operation Barbarossa . A major strategic defeat in the Battle of Moscow forced Speer as armaments minister to nationalise German war production and eliminate the worst inefficiencies. In Canada early use of the term concerned whether or not
6912-475: The east as well as many thousands of civilians. During the Battle of Stalingrad , newly built T-34 tanks were driven—unpainted because of a paint shortage—from the factory floor straight to the front. This came to symbolise the USSR's commitment to a policy of total war. Curtis LeMay Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a US Air Force general who implemented an effective but controversial strategic bombing campaign in
7020-587: The effort, with Goebbels and Speer as advisors; Goebbels had expected to be one of the triumvirate. Hitler remained aloof from the project, and it was Goebbels and Hermann Göring who gave the "total war" radio address from the Sportspalast the next month, on the 10th anniversary of the Nazi's "seizure of power" . I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today? The commitment to
7128-602: The entire home front on a war footing. Hitler appeared to accept the concept, but took no action. Goebbels had the support of minister of armaments Albert Speer , economics minister Walther Funk and Robert Ley , head of the German Labour Front , and they pressed Hitler in October 1942 to take action, but Hitler, while outwardly agreeing, continued to dither. Finally, after the holidays in 1942, Hitler sent his powerful personal secretary, Martin Bormann , to discuss
7236-627: The failure of its blockade, the Soviet Union relented and reopened land corridors to the West. Though LeMay is sometimes publicly credited with the success of the Berlin Airlift, it was, in fact, instigated by General Lucius D. Clay when Clay called LeMay about the problem. LeMay initially started flying supplies into Berlin, but then decided that it was a job for a logistics expert and he found that person in Lt. General William H. Tunner , who took over
7344-402: The famous "Stone Age" quote. Later, in a Washington Post interview LeMay said that "I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it. I want to save lives on both sides". Etymologyst Barry Popik cites multiple sources (including interviews with LeMay) for various versions of both quotes from LeMay. Nevertheless, the "should" quote remained part of
7452-452: The firebombing campaign took effect, Japanese war planners were forced to expend significant resources to relocate vital war industries to remote caves and mountain bunkers, reducing production of war material. LeMay also oversaw Operation Starvation , an aerial mining operation against Japanese waterways and ports that disrupted Japanese shipping and logistics . Although his superiors were unsupportive of this naval objective, LeMay gave it
7560-686: The grounds that a third-party candidacy might hurt Nixon's chances at the polls. (By coincidence, Wallace had served as a sergeant in a unit commanded by LeMay during World War II before LeMay had Wallace transferred to the 477th Bombardment Group.) In 1968 LeMay threw his support to Wallace and became his vice-presidential running mate on the American Independent Party ticket. The campaign saw Wallace's record on racial segregation heavily scrutinized. Wallace's staff began to consider LeMay to be "politically tone-deaf" as LeMay made several comments at campaign events speculating about
7668-973: The kind of commander he was. In August 1944, LeMay transferred to the China-Burma-India theater and directed first the XX Bomber Command in China and then the XXI Bomber Command in the Pacific. LeMay was later placed in charge of all strategic air operations against the Japanese home islands. LeMay soon concluded that the techniques and tactics developed for use in Europe against the Luftwaffe were unsuitable against Japan. His Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers flying from China were dropping their bombs near their targets only 5% of
7776-400: The long-term effects of total war on society. 5) Total change: This includes changes in social attitudes, cultural norms, and political structures, as well as economic and technological developments. In Peccia's view, total war not only transforms the military and political landscape but also has far-reaching and long-time implications for society as a whole. Actions that may characterise
7884-583: The merely unfortunate." Life magazine reported that LeMay once took the co-pilot's seat of a SAC bomber to observe the mission, complete with lit cigar. When asked by the pilot to put out the cigar, LeMay asked why. When the pilot explained that fumes inside the fuselage could explode, LeMay growled, "It wouldn't dare". The incident was used as the basis for a fictional scene in the 1955 film Strategic Air Command . In his controversial and factually disputed memoir War's End , Major General Charles Sweeney related an alleged 1944 incident that may have been
7992-411: The naval blockade and, after the end of the crisis, suggested that Cuba be invaded anyway, even after the Soviets agreed to withdraw their missiles. Kennedy refused LeMay's requests, and the naval blockade was successful. The memorandum from LeMay, Chief of Staff, USAF, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, January 4, 1964, illustrates LeMay's reasons for keeping bomber forces alongside ballistic missiles: "It
8100-649: The newly formed 3rd Air Division . He personally led several dangerous missions, including the Regensburg section of the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission of August 17, 1943. In that mission, he led 146 B-17s to Regensburg , Germany , beyond the range of escorting fighters , and, after bombing, continued on to bases in North Africa , losing 24 bombers in the process. The heavy losses in veteran crews on this and subsequent deep penetration missions in
8208-460: The onset of the Second World War, Great Britain drew on its First World War experience to prepare legislation that would allow immediate mobilisation of the economy for war, should future hostilities break out. Rationing of most goods and services was introduced, not only for consumers but also for manufacturers. This meant that factories manufacturing products that were irrelevant to the war effort had more appropriate tasks imposed. All artificial light
8316-483: The operational aspects of the Berlin Airlift. In 1948, he returned to the U.S. to head the Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Offutt Air Force Base , replacing Gen George Kenney . When LeMay took over command of SAC, it consisted of little more than a few understaffed B-29 bombardment groups left over from World War II. Less than half of the available aircraft were operational, and the crews were undertrained. Base and aircraft security standards were minimal. Upon inspecting
8424-402: The original aggravation. The use of ICBMs and SLBMs is not, therefore, a rational or credible response to provocations which, although serious, are still less than an immediate threat to national survival. For this reason, among others, I consider that the national security will continue to require the flexibility, responsiveness, and discrimination of manned strategic weapon systems throughout
8532-634: The original goal. Their pilots landed in Chicago to refuel. LeMay's aircraft had sufficient fuel to reach Washington, but he was directed by the War Department to join the others by refueling at Chicago. After World War II, LeMay was already thinking about deterrence theory and how the next war would be fought. He was briefly transferred to The Pentagon as deputy chief of Air Staff for Research & Development. In 1947, LeMay returned to Europe as commander of USAF Europe , heading operations for
8640-490: The perception that some American voters had of the Wallace-LeMay ticket. The "bomb them back to the stone age" comment received significant publicity, but LeMay disclaimed the comment, saying in a later interview: "I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do it". The Wallace-LeMay AIP ticket received 13.5% of the popular vote, higher than most third party candidacies in
8748-558: The popular vote, a strong tally for a third party campaign, but the Wallace campaign came to see LeMay as a liability due to his controversial stance promoting the use of nuclear weapons. After the election, LeMay retired to Newport Beach, California , and he died in 1990 at age 83. LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio , on November 15, 1906. LeMay was of English and distant French Huguenot heritage. His father, Erving Edwin LeMay,
8856-465: The possibility of nuclear war, including the press conference where Wallace introduced LeMay as his running mate, where LeMay voiced his belief that there were many situations where the use of nuclear weapons would be efficient and that dropping nuclear bombs would result in positive outcomes for the environment. LeMay's arguments that the American public had a "phobia" of atomic weapons failed to change
8964-427: The post-19th century concept of total war include: The phrase "total war" seemingly originated amongst French writers during World War I and French writer Léon Daudet published a collection of essays called La Guerre Totale ("The total war") in 1918. The phrase was popularised by the 1935 publication of German general Erich Ludendorff 's World War I memoir, Der totale Krieg ("The total war"). Some authors extend
9072-421: The press and economy. In Schmitt's view the total state, which directs fully the mobilisation of all social and economic resources to war, is antecedent to total war. Scholars consider that the seeds of this total state concept already existed in the German state of World War I, which exercised full control of the press and other aspects economic and social life as espoused in the statement of state ideology known as
9180-500: The previous 70. Upon receiving his fourth star in 1951 at age 44, LeMay became the youngest American four-star general since Ulysses S. Grant . He would also become the longest serving person in that rank in American military history. In 1954 LeMay remarked to pilot Hal Austin, whose plane had been damaged by a MiG-17 while on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union , "Well, maybe if we do this overflight right, we can get World War III started". Hal Austin assumed that LeMay
9288-491: The question with Goebbels and Hans Lammers , the head of the Reich Chancellery . As a result, Bormann told Goebbels to go ahead and draw up a draft of the necessary decree, to be signed in January 1943. Hitler signed the decree on 13 January, almost a year after Goebbels first discussed the concept with him. The decree set up a steering committee consisting of Bormann, Lammers, and General Wilhelm Keitel to oversee
9396-413: The range of cold, limited, and general war". LeMay's dislike for tactical aircraft and training backfired in the low-intensity conflict of Vietnam , where existing Air Force fighter aircraft and standard attack profiles proved incapable of carrying out sustained tactical bombing campaigns in the face of hostile North Vietnamese antiaircraft defenses. LeMay said, "Flying fighters is fun. Flying bombers
9504-400: The reenlistment rate through a number of means: encouraging off-duty group recreational activities, instituting spot promotions based on performance, and authorizing special uniforms, training, equipment, and allowances for ground personnel as well as flight crews. On LeMay's departure, SAC was composed of 224,000 airmen, close to 2,000 heavy bombers, and nearly 800 tanker aircraft. LeMay
9612-481: The same courage." Not only were men conscripted into the armed forces from the beginning of the war (something which had not happened until the middle of World War I), but women were also conscripted as Land Girls to aid farmers and the Bevin Boys were conscripted to work down the coal mines. Enormous casualties were expected in bombing raids, so children were evacuated from London and other cities en masse to
9720-587: The time. Operational losses of aircraft and crews were unacceptably high owing to Japanese daylight air defenses and continuing mechanical problems with the B-29. In January 1945, LeMay was transferred from China to relieve Brigadier General Haywood S. Hansell as commander of the XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas . He became convinced that high-altitude precision bombing would be ineffective, given
9828-466: The twentieth century." They write: As an aggressor nation, the ancient Mongols, no less than the modern Nazis , practiced total war against an enemy by organizing all available resources, including military personnel , non-combatant workers, intelligence , transport , money , and provisions . In his book, The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know it , David A Bell,
9936-479: The two men agreeing the primary mission of SAC should be the capability of delivering 80% of the nation's atomic bombs in one mission. At the Dualism Conference in December 1948, the Air Force leadership rallied behind LeMay's position that the service's highest priority was to deliver the SAC atomic offensive "in one fell swoop telescoping mass and time". "To LeMay, demolishing everything was how you win
10044-570: The use of military space programs to perform satellite reconnaissance and gather electronic intelligence. For comparison, the US Army and Navy frequently suffered budgetary cutbacks and program cancellations by Congress and Secretary McNamara. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, LeMay clashed again with U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Defense Secretary McNamara, arguing that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites in Cuba . He opposed
10152-510: The usually cloudy weather over Japan. Furthermore, bombs dropped from the B-29s at high altitude (above 20,000 feet (6,100 m)) were often blown off of their trajectories by a consistently powerful jet stream over the Japanese home islands, which dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the high-altitude raids. Because Japanese air defenses made daytime bombing below jet stream-affected altitudes too perilous, LeMay finally switched to low-altitude nighttime incendiary attacks on Japanese targets,
10260-531: The women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn old lint into linen; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic. During the Russian campaign of 1812 the Russians retreated while destroying infrastructure and agriculture in order to effectively hamper
10368-595: The work done by Patrick Blackett 's team on the optimum size and speed of convoys and the introduction of bomber streams , by the Royal Air Force to counter the night fighter defences of the Kammhuber Line . In 1935 General Ludendorff in the book Der Totale Krieg gave life to the term "Total War" in the German lexicon. However, being followers of the stab-in-the-back myth , military and Nazi leadership believed that Germany hadn't lost World War I on
10476-569: Was a major in the United States Army Air Forces (he had been a first lieutenant as recently as 1940), and the commander of a newly created B-17 Flying Fortress unit, the 305th Bomb Group . He took this unit to England in October 1942 as part of the Eighth Air Force , and led it in combat until May 1943, notably helping to develop the combat box formation. In September 1943, he became the first commander of
10584-624: Was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961. Following service as USAF Vice Chief of Staff (1957–1961), LeMay was made the fifth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on the retirement of Gen Thomas White . His belief in the efficacy of strategic air campaigns over tactical strikes and ground support operations became Air Force policy during his tenure as chief of staff. As Chief of Staff, LeMay clashed repeatedly with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert , and
10692-479: Was approached by conservatives to challenge moderate Republican Thomas Kuchel for his seat in the United States Senate in 1968, but he declined. For the 1968 presidential election , LeMay originally supported former Republican Vice President Richard Nixon; he turned down two requests by former Alabama Governor George Wallace to join his newly formed American Independent Party , that year, on
10800-580: Was at times an ironworker and general handyman, but he never held a job longer than a few months. His mother, Arizona Dove ( née Carpenter) LeMay, did her best to hold her family together. With very limited income, his family moved around the country as his father looked for work, going as far as Montana and California . Eventually they returned to his native city of Columbus. LeMay attended Columbus public schools, graduating from Columbus South High School, and studied civil engineering at Ohio State University . Working his way through college, he graduated with
10908-636: Was awarded the Mackay Trophy in 1939. For Haynes again, in May 1938 he navigated three B-17s 620 nmi (710 mi; 1,150 km) over the Atlantic Ocean to intercept the Italian liner SS Rex to illustrate the ability of land-based airpower to defend the American coasts. In 1940 he was navigator for Haynes on the prototype Boeing XB-15 heavy bomber, flying a survey from Panama over
11016-709: Was followed by renewed negotiations that led to the Paris Peace Agreement , appearing to support the claim. However, consideration must be given to significant differences in terms of both military objectives and geopolitical realities between 1968 and 1972, including the impact of Nixon's recognition and exploitation of the Sino-Soviet split to gain a "free hand" in Vietnam and the shift of Communist opposition from an organic insurgency (the Viet Cong ) to
11124-502: Was ignored. Instead, an incremental policy, Operation Rolling Thunder , was implemented that focused on limited interdiction bombing of fluid enemy supply corridors in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. This limited campaign failed to destroy significant quantities of enemy war supplies or diminish enemy ambitions. Bombing limitations were imposed by President Lyndon Johnson for geopolitical reasons, as he surmised that bombing Soviet and Chinese ships in port and killing Soviet advisers would bring
11232-520: Was joking, but years later, after LeMay retired, Austin saw him again and "brought up the subject of the mission we had flown. And he remembered it like it was yesterday. We chatted about it a little bit. His comment again was, 'Well, we'd have been a hell of a lot better off if we'd got World War III started in those days'". In 1956 and 1957 LeMay implemented tests of 24-hour bomber and tanker alerts, keeping some bomber forces ready at all times. LeMay headed SAC until 1957, overseeing its transformation into
11340-688: Was notorious for its unprecedented ferocity, destruction, and immense loss of life (see World War II casualties ). The fighting involved millions of German , Hungarian, Romanian and Soviet troops along a broad front hundreds of kilometres long. It was by far the deadliest single theatre of World War II. Scholars now believe that at most 27 million Soviet citizens died during the war, including at least 8.7 million soldiers who fell in battle against Hitler 's armies or died in POW camps. Millions of civilians died from starvation , exposure, atrocities, and massacres. The Axis lost over 5 million soldiers in
11448-652: Was only one small battle as the expedition devastated "14 towns and most flourishing crops of corn." The Native Americans escaped to Canada where the British fed them; they remained there after the war. Sherman's March to the Sea in the American Civil War —from 15 November 1864, through 21 December 1864—is sometimes considered to be an example of total war, for which Sherman used the term hard war . Some historians challenge this designation, as Sherman's campaign assaulted primarily military targets and Sherman ordered his men to spare civilian homes. Bombing civilians from
11556-487: Was protected by a greatly enhanced and modernized security force, the Strategic Air Command Elite Guard . LeMay insisted on rigorous training and very high standards of performance for all SAC personnel, be they officers, enlisted men, aircrews, mechanics, or administrative staff, and reportedly commented, "I have neither the time nor the inclination to differentiate between the incompetent and
11664-437: Was subject to legal blackouts . ..There is another more obvious difference from 1914. The whole of the warring nations are engaged, not only soldiers, but the entire population, men, women and children. The fronts are everywhere to be seen. The trenches are dug in the towns and streets. Every village is fortified. Every road is barred. The front line runs through the factories. The workmen are soldiers with different weapons but
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