ABSTRACT
In 1956, the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) stood poised to unleash nuclear holocaust against the Soviet Union. General Curtis E. LeMay had moulded SAC into the world’s most awesome aerial strike force, and he had no qualms about using that instrument to support a policy of ‘massive retaliation’. ‘The United States is committed to a policy of peace’, he told his assembled commanders at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in January. ‘That is, our military power will be utilized primarily to prevent aggression. However, if war cannot be prevented on terms acceptable to the United States, the Air Force must insure that we win – no matter how it starts or how hollow the victory might be.’ 1
