The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
The firebombing of Tokyo. Strategic Air Command. John F. Kennedy. Dr. Strangelove. George Wallace. All of these have one man in common -- General Curtis Lemay, who remains as enigmatic and controversial as he was in life.
Until now. Warren Kozak traces the trajectory of America's most infamous general , from his firebombing of Tokyo, guardianship of the U.S. Nuclear arsenal in the Cold War, frustrated career in government, and short-lived political run. Curtis Lemay's life spanned an epoch in American military history, from the small U.S. army airĀ corps of the interwar years to the nuclear age.