John F. Kennedy and General Curtis LeMay

In 1949, Curtis LeMay was appointed as head of Strategic Air Command (SAC) and is credited with overseeing its transformation into a modern air force. LeMay was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961 when he was made the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. In this post he clashed repeatedly with President John F. Kennedy and his Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara.

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News & Politics

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• JFK
• Assassination
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[0907oliv]

Curtis LeMay & another member of the Joints Chief tried several times to pressure JFK to make a first strike (nuclear) on the Soviet Union in 1961. JFK said no. In a meeting, JFK was horrified by the detached way in which they described to him how many American cities would be destroyed and how many Americans would be killed with the expected Soviet retaliation. He walked out of the meeting and said: "And we call ourselves the human race!" Thank God for President Kennedy!

[Steenville]

Another very interesting video- especially the very last part..

[SANTORO61]

Lemay a hero.........Kennedy a zero.

[droidtank]

LeMay was absolutely way too hardline. However, it's an interesting thought to consider the many military equivalents that existed in the Soviet Union. What happened under his command is absolutely not okay under what we now would consider to be humane war, but when you look at it through the prism of what was going on in WWII, you understand it a bit more. In addition it was also clear his balls probably had their own zip code with the way he acted. What another wonderful chapter of US History

[exenrontexas]

LeMay was a danger to peace. He wanted to use nukes in every war he was associated with. WWII where he accomplished it and Korea, Cuba and Vietnam where he tried his best to use them. Kennedy was RIGHT to oppose LeMay and if Kennedy had not been murdered he might have succeeded in DISarmament with peace and brought an end to the Soviets long before Reagan claimed to.

[draoi99]

Ha ha, did LeMay think he was going to live forever? What a fool a man is to place all his hope in this life. If you speak to nurses who work with the terminally ill, they will tell you that some of the patients become terrified in the days prior to death, they see demons coming to get them. Be careful.

[knightschwartz]

LeMay's support George Wallace shows he was in know about race and things such mass immigration and miscegnation now destroying the west.

[Agent1W]

I'm with Curtis LeMay here. Communism spread like a plague, too far and too fast in the '50s.

[mtracy9]

"At a Georgetown dinner party recently, the wife of a leading senator sat next to Gen. Curtis LeMay, chief of staff of the Air Force. He told her a nuclear war was inevitable. It would begin in December and be all over by the first of the year... The lady, as she tells it, asked if there were any place where she could take her children and grandchildren to safety... He told her that certain unpopulated areas in the far west would be safest." --Marquis Childs, Washington Post, 19 July 1961

[skywoof7]

I'm glad Richard Elden has posted here. He makes it ever clearer the insanity of those such as LeMay & the Joint Chief's of JFK's day & the right wing of our day by seriously stating President Kennedy was the worst President in our history, & this after the country has endured Nixon, Ford, Reagan, & the two Bushes. Elden is clearly just as insane himself.

JFK was indeed a hero & 0907oliv & BOELCKE1919 have it correctly. If only LeMay & the other JC's are burning in hell where they belong.

[Boelcke1919]

Jack Kennedy saved us from nuclear annihilation and the "insiders" killed him for it, which is why every American should say a prayer to God thanking Him for JFK and should also make a pilgrimage to his eternal flame gravesite. LeMay and the other fascists were barely sane, yet they advised the President.

[0907oliv]

I can't comment on Mr.Elden's latest. It is true that the Republicans were talking about it. But I can't reply until I fully verse myself on the chain of events. I know RFK aksed his Soviet contact if it was true and got a no. I know it was a few weeks before they got surveillance. JFK was wary of folks trying to get him into a war. I suspect there is more to the story. Seeing Mr. Elden's happiness about the assasination, I don't think I want to waste my time with him any further.