[1 of 6]
Happy 115th Birthday to Curtis "Bombs Away" LeMay. Curtis, who died in 1990, grew from a small Ohio town to become one of the most polarizing figures of the early Cold War.
The aggressive Air Force general had unyielding faith in the strategic value of aerial bombing.
[2 of 6]
One of the principle architects of the policy that came to be known with derision as "Mutually Assured Destruction," Curtis was the inspiration for General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
[3 of 6]
In real life, Curtis chewed a cigar stub to disguise the Bell’s palsy partial facial paralysis that made one side of his lower lip droop. [He was struck with Bell's palsy while flying in the cold]
[4 of 6]
While not universally loved within his service or even his internal staff, he was a respected, larger-than-life character.
From LeMay biographer Richard Rhodes: "He was a warrior as hard as Ulysses S. Grant, a bomber pilot, a big-game hunter: dark, fleshy, smart."
[5 of 6]
In 1968, the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force ran for Vice President on George Wallace's American Independent Party ticket. [He really just wanted to help block Hubert Humphrey's election...Nixon was elected POTUS].
[END]
While LeMay argued that strategic bombing disproved the need for a large, fully resourced Army, he did make a key contribution to the ground service in pushing DoD to adopt the AR-15, from which the M-16 was later adapted.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.