Word: lemay
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...Argument For. General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force Chief of Staff, flew B-17s against Europe, directed the B-29 attacks against Japan, developed the Strategic Air Command as the carrier of nuclear deterrent, and still has deep faith in manned aircraft no matter how fast the art of the missile has advanced. LeMay argues that a man can operate better in the inevitable confusion of combat than the robot brain of a missile. For the advantages of manned aircraft at whatever speed or altitude, he has only to point to the recent experiences of Astronaut John Glenn, who personally...
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara has been under fire from some big guns because of his go-slow approach to the development of the RS-70, the Air Force's reconnaissance-strike superbomber. First, General Curtis LeMay, the Air Force's cigar-chomping Chief of Staff, bluntly charged that McNamara was endangering the nation's security. Then Chairman Carl Vinson of the House Armed Services Committee sided with LeMay, backed a bill that would give the Pentagon a direct order to speed construction of the RS-70. Last week McNamara, his patience gone, called a press conference...
...into the air. This year the Air Force wants to modify the B70 plans and build the RS-70, which would be designed to fly over an enemy country hit by U.S. missiles, inspect the damage by radar, radio back reports and attack surviving targets with nuclear-tipped missiles. LeMay and Vinson, insisting that the U.S. will continue to need such bombers for some time, want to spend $491 million next fiscal year on a crash program to develop the RS-70. McNamara and President Kennedy want to spend only $171 million to continue development of three prototype...
...after McNamara's salvo, Air Force Secretary Eugene M. Zuckert stopped pushing for a stepped-up RS-70 program and fell in line with the Defense Secretary. That arrayed President Kennedy, McNamara, all three service secretaries and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff except Curt LeMay behind a throttled-back RS-70 program. Undeterred, Carl Vinson's committee sent to the House its bill to force the RS-70 on the Administration...
Vinson sided with LeMay against McNamara. His Armed Services Committee, which he dominates as chairman like a benevolent first sergeant, proposed spending an additional $491 million on the RS-70 in fiscal 1963. But far more important was the form of the proposal. To make sure that McNamara would spend the extra $491 million on the RS-70, Vinson's committee set a precedent: it urged that the Administration be "directed, ordered, mandated and required" by Congress to build the bomber...