Thanks for writing this, I was going to write my own LeMay article but now see that you've done a pretty good job.
My father was a B24 pilot in WW2 who spent a year as a German POW (Stalag Luft III). My son just watched "Oppenheimer" and had all these questions. I told him Edward Teller and LeMay were sort of the Dr Strangelove characters, and that people like Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy fortunately kept our nuclear arms in check. Re: LeMay specifically:
1) Just watched "Masters of the Air". Some of LeMay's early bombing runs were crazy (B17s w sometimes no fighter support). Patton was "blood and guts" with great logistical support, LeMay was sometimes "blood, guts, no brains"
2) Though not ordered by LeMay, the Dresden bombing was more or less a war crime, it almost compelled Hitler to use my father and other prisoners as "human shields" (real smart). More at:
https://medium.com/p/cbba4c4f31c1
3) Tokyo firebombing and eventual atom bomb was more complicated. Obviously, after Iwo, Okinawa and others, Japanese were willing to fight to the death, unfortunately these civilian deaths may have brought war to earlier conclusion, saved allied lives, kept Russia from gobbling up more territory.
4) Not strategically smart to nuke millions of civilians generally (as MacArthur and LeMay wanted to do in Korea, etc). Honestly, Cold War pushback, eventual collapse of Communism from within a better strategy, though not satisfying LeMay bloodlust and "hero ball". In hindsight, Kennedy did the right thing with Cuba, a surgical, chess-like maneuver.
5) Obviously LeMay was later fascist whacko in the Civil Rights era, lots of followers for his bully-ball approach. But was he really a great military general, or overrated (tons of US industrial support, right place at right time, entered war when German/Japanese were weakened). Obviously, our planes couldn't win Vietnam by bombing a bunch of peasants in rice paddies (modern conflicts more whack-a-mole). Even today, missiles and drones are making LeMay's vision of air power almost obsolete. Billy Mitchell was my Dad's air force hero, not LeMay.
6) War seems a kind of "fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee". I give the Gen. Marshalls, Nimitzes, FDRs & Eisenhowers credit for their logistics, diplomacy, and restraint, prior to the military punch in the nose. Just like in sports, its teamwork that wins, not hero ball.
