World word II concepts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

World word II concepts - Essay Example In 1942-43, however, the U.S. Army Air Force went to war following a daylight precision bombing doctrine, then drifted toward area bombing, culminating in the Dresden raid and the firebombing of Japan. Conceding that "ethical restraints were not the most important limitation on terror bombing," Crane argues that their influence-amid doctrines, command pressures, and public attitudes--"cannot be completely discounted" (p. 8), and relies on official reports and statements to survey the range of views of strategic bombing among the senior airmen. USAAF trial night bombing missions are not noted, nor are such shaping forces as pacifist lobbying, the Army Industrial College, the Geneva air talks, the Nye Hearings, many, many boards and committees, and the Color/Rainbow War Plans. Nor will many students of propaganda agree that serious concern for public opinion in war-waging dates from the American Civil War. Much of the genealogy of RAF area-bombing lies out of view, from the Independent Air Force in World War I and interwar Air Staff processes, through various Bomber Command chiefs frustrations, the area-bombing scheme of Lindemann, Churchills science advisor, to the August 1942 Moscow Conference, when Churchill promised Stalin to bomb German cities in lieu of a "Second Front." However bellicose in style and rhetoric, Bomber Command chief Air Marshal Sir Arthur "Bert" Harris, was heir to that momentum. Whatever his influence was on Americans, especially on LeMay, the latter is cast as a kind of air-age Cromwell, and his considerable organizing and leadership skills are muted. After speculating how Nimitz or MacArthur might have reined in LeMay, Crane judges the twenty-first Bomber Command "more efficient" than the RAF Bomber Command, which is perplexing since their respective milieux varied widely, in duration, technologies, and distances. Whatever its debits, Cranes study is well worth reading. It describes how