Books: LeMay by Barrett Tillman for the Great Generals Series (Palgrave/Macmillan)
BATR's Mark Dankof remembers General Curtis E. LeMay quite well. As related to listeners to Mark's Republic Broadcasting Network show on February 16th, he voted for the Wallace-LeMay Presidential ticket on the American Independent Party line in 1968 in a mock Presidential election at Miami Valley School in Dayton, Ohio while in the 8th grade that year. It was the ultimate act of political defiance during the incipient stages of Political Correctness in America in the late 1960s in the American educational scene.
Mark Dankof remembers Curtis Emerson LeMay for another reason. The former's father, Colonel Karl E. Dankof (USAF-ret.), served General LeMay as an aide at several high-level Air Force staff conferences during the height of the Cold War. Colonel Dankof made a number of rounds during his USAF days, including stints with AFTAC, and as the former Air Force Logistics Command's (AFLC) liaison to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. After the war, the Colonel served the Lockheed company as a director of logistics for the Shah of Iran's Imperial Iranian Air Force, and later in Saudi Arabia.
Palgrave/Macmillan has a Great Generals Series now available. The selected Generals are Patton, Grant, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Stonewall Jackson--and yes, you guessed it--a guy named LeMay. Barrett Tillman authors the LeMay book, which Mark Dankof grades as a readable, enjoyable, A+ effort, in analyzing the Father of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a more complex figure than generally acknowledged by either advocates or detractors. See below for more information:
Mark Dankof remembers Curtis Emerson LeMay for another reason. The former's father, Colonel Karl E. Dankof (USAF-ret.), served General LeMay as an aide at several high-level Air Force staff conferences during the height of the Cold War. Colonel Dankof made a number of rounds during his USAF days, including stints with AFTAC, and as the former Air Force Logistics Command's (AFLC) liaison to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. After the war, the Colonel served the Lockheed company as a director of logistics for the Shah of Iran's Imperial Iranian Air Force, and later in Saudi Arabia.
Palgrave/Macmillan has a Great Generals Series now available. The selected Generals are Patton, Grant, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Stonewall Jackson--and yes, you guessed it--a guy named LeMay. Barrett Tillman authors the LeMay book, which Mark Dankof grades as a readable, enjoyable, A+ effort, in analyzing the Father of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a more complex figure than generally acknowledged by either advocates or detractors. See below for more information:
LeMay (Great Generals)
| |  | About This Book |
- Available at:
- Burnside, Quimby Warehouse
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
LeMay was a terrifying, complex, and brilliant general. In World War II, he ordered the firebombing of Tokyo and was in charge when were Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths a fact he liked to celebrate by smoking Cuban cigars. But LeMay was also the man who single-handedly transformed the American air force from a ramshackle team of poorly-trained and badly equipped pilots into one of the fiercest and most efficient weapons of the war. Over the last decades, most U.S. military missions were carried out entirely through the employment of the air force--this is LeMay's legacy. Packed with breathtaking battles in the air and inspiring leadership tactics on the ground, LeMay will keep readers on their edge of their seats.
Review:
"The general in charge of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Curtis Emerson LeMay witnessed the beginning of the age of nuclear weaponry. As commander of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War, he saw its consequences in the escalating tension with Russia and his campaigns in North and South Korea. Tillman (author of 40 books including Warriors) calls LeMay one of 'the chilliest of cold war Republicans,' having made the dubious choice to become the 1968 running mate of segregationist George Wallace. Though LeMay claimed to have joined the campaign out of concern for opponent Richard Nixon's foreign policy, the move permanently damaged his reputation. 'It is not recorded that anyone ever accused Curtis LeMay of charisma,' observes Tillman, adding, 'Perhaps no other American military leader of the 20th century was so successful without possessing a charismatic personality.' That may help explain why the book includes significantly more discussion of B-29s and B-52s than it does anecdotes or direct quotes that illustrate LeMay's character or personal life. Well informed and clear, this somewhat dry account will interest air force enthusiasts, though LeMay's charmlessness is unlikely to win over many casual readers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Labels: AFTAC, Cold War, Dankof, LeMay, Shah of Iran, Wallace
