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> as far as I know only one side in the Cold War had military leaders who wanted to start a nuclear war - guess which one? I'd be interested in seeing a citati
by KMag 13y ago
> as far as I know only one side in the Cold War had military leaders who wanted to start a nuclear war - guess which one?
I'd be interested in seeing a citation for this fact.
Edit: Curtis LeMay secretly advocated preemptive strikes if it became clear the Soviets were preparing a first strike. This is different from "wanting" nuclear war.
- arethuza 13y agoThe reference I specifically remember (although I have read others) is in "Dark Sun" by Richard Rhodes. LeMay ordered overflights over the USSR and commented: "Well, maybe if we do this overflight right, we can get World War III started." I don't have my copy of Dark Sun handy, but there is a reference to the incident in this review: http://www.geoffwisner.com/index.php/book_reviews/article/?t=other&f=darksun http://www.geoffwisner.com/index.php/book_reviews/article/?t... LeMay's belief in a "preventative" war was oddly rational - he believed that a conflict between the US and the USSR was inevitable and that therefore that US should strike before the USSR posed a strategic threat to the US (which it didn't really do until the mid 60s at the earliest). Rhodes writes about the Cuban Missile Crisis: "If John Kennedy had followed LeMay's advice, history would have forgotten the Nazis and their terrible Holocaust. Ours would have been the historic omnicide".
- brorfred 13y agoThis seems to at least be a good start: http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Did_the_US_Military_Plan_a_Nuclear_First_Strike_for_1963 http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Essay_-_Did_the_US...