There are no innocent civilians, so it doesn't bother me so much to be killing innocent bystanders. Curtis LeMay More Quotes by Curtis LeMay More Quotes From Curtis LeMay If you are going to use military force, then you ought to use overwhelming military force. Use too much and deliberately use too much; you'll save lives, not only your own, but the enemy's too. Curtis LeMay military use enemy If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting. Curtis LeMay bad-ass fighting military If we maintain our faith in God, love of freedom, and superior global air power, the future looks good. Curtis LeMay military air looks I don't have time to distinguish between the unfortunate and the incompetent. Curtis LeMay incompetent unfortunate time I think there are many times when it would be most efficient to use nuclear weapons. However, the public opinion in this country and throughout the world throw up their hands in horror when you mention nuclear weapons, just because of the propaganda that's been fed to them. Curtis LeMay country hands thinking My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power - not with ground forces. Curtis LeMay vietnam military age I don't mind being called tough, since I find in this racket it's the tough guys who lead the survivors. Curtis LeMay guy military mind Don't like to do anything half-heartedly, even if it is a wicked and self-destructive avocation like smoking cigars Curtis LeMay wicked self smoking We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea anyway, someway or another, and some in South Korea too. Over a period of three years or so, we killed off - what - twenty percent of the population of Korea as direct casualties of war, or from starvation and exposure? Curtis LeMay korea war years If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals. Curtis LeMay criminals lost war You [President Kennedy] have made some pretty strong statements about their being defensive and that we would take action against offensive weapons. I think that a blockade and political talk would be considered by a lot of our friends and neutrals as being a pretty weak response to this [the Cuban missile crisis]. And I'm sure a lot of our own citizens would feel that way too. In other words, you're in a pretty bad fix at the present time. Curtis LeMay strong war thinking I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier. Curtis LeMay military war thinking Native annalists may look sadly back from the future on that period when we had the atomic bomb and the Russians didn't. Or when the Russians had aquired (through connivance and treachery of Westerns with warped minds) the atomic bomb - and yet still didn't have any stockpile of the weapons. That was the era when we might have destroyed Russia completely and not even skinned our elbows doing it. Curtis LeMay eras russia mind Today, shooting wars are won or lost before they start. If they are fought at all, they would be fought principally to confirm which side had won at the outset. Curtis LeMay shooting would-be war We're at war with Japan. We were attacked by Japan. Do you want to kill Japanese, or would you rather have Americans killed? Curtis LeMay japan want war You've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting. Curtis LeMay fighting enough people My solution to the problem would be to tell the North Vietnamese Communists frankly that they've got to drawn in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the stone age. Curtis LeMay horny age would-be I don't want to hear of any of you men getting into any fights with the British. But if you do, you'd better not get whipped. Curtis LeMay fighting war peace Sometime in the future - 25, 50, 75 years hence - what will the situation be like then? By that time the Chinese will have the capability of delivery too. Curtis LeMay chinese situation years I'd like to see a more aggressive attitude on the part of the United States. That doesn't mean launching an immediate preventive war. Curtis LeMay attitude war mean
