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The Fog of War

Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara
Apr 08, 2014akirakato rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Originally released as a motion picture documentary in 2003, this 107-minute interview with McNamara will give you an astonishing, chilling and sometuimes horrifying insights into the bombing of Tokyo, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the effects of the Vietnam War. During World War II, McNamara worked under General Curtis LeMay. One episode really impressed me. LeMay switched from high-altitude precision bombing to low-altitude nighttime incendiary attacks on Japanese targets. For the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945 (the most destructive bombing raid of the war), LeMay ordered the defensive guns removed from 325 B-29s, loaded each plane with Model M-47 incendiary clusters, magnesium bombs, white phosphorus bombs, and napalm, and ordered the bombers to fly in streams at 5,000 to 9,000 feet (1,500 to 2,700 m) over Tokyo. General LeMay was informed by a senior staff member, Colonel William P. Fisher, that bomber pilots were turning back from these low altitude bombing runs due to heavy anti-aircraft fire from Japanese defense forces. Some crew were killed by the Japanese anti-aircraft fire. One of bomber captains got mad at LeMay, who told the captain that the operation killed 100,000 civilians, destroying 250,000 buildings while incinerating 16 square miles (41 km2) of the city at the cost of only some American lives. LeMay was aware of the implication of his orders. The New York Times reported at the time, "Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, commander of the B-29s of the entire Marianas area, declared that if the war is shortened by a single day, the attack will have served its purpose." The argument was that it was his duty to carry out the attacks in order to end the war as quickly as possible, sparing further loss of life. He also remarked that had the U.S. lost the war, he fully expected to be tried for war crimes. I seem to come to the moment of truth that, nicknamed as "The Demon," General Curtis Emerson LeMay must have been involved in the conspiracy of JFK's death in order to protect both the military-industrial complex and the American Establishment at the cost of a single person---the then US President.