Curtis Emerson LeMay (15 November 1906-1 October 1990) was Chief of Staff of the US Air Force from 1961 to 1965, succeeding Thomas D. White and preceding John P. McConnell. During World War II, LeMay supervised the controversial firebombing of Japanese cities and the mining of Japan's internal waterways to starve out the last of the major Axis Powers.
Biography[]
Curtis Emerson LeMay was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1906, and he joined the Air Corps Reserve (the predecessor of the US Air Force) in 1929. By the time that the United States entered World War II, LeMay was a major in the US Army Air Force, and he rose to command the 305th Operations Group from October 1942 to September 1943 and the 3rd Air Division in Europe until August 1944, personally overseeing bombings to nearly eliminate USAAF mission abortions. He went on to hold bomber commands in China and the Pacific, overseeing B-29 raids on Japan from Allied airbases in China and massive incendiary attacks on 63 Japanese cities. His firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 killed 100,000 civilians and destroyed 250,000 buildings, and he later remarked, "I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal." After the war, he commanded the USAF in Europe and oversaw the Berlin Airlift. From 1948 to 1957, he commanded the Strategic Air Command, presiding over the transition to an all-jet air force capable of delivering nuclear weapons. LeMay advocated for the bombign of Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and he also supported a strong sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he served as American Independent Party presidential candidate George Wallace's running mate during the 1968 election, winning 46 electoral votes, 5 states, and 13.5% of the popular vote and losing to Republican Richard Nixon. After the election, LeMay retired to his Newport Beach, California home and died in 1990.