"In July 1950, President Truman ordered Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command, to send B-29s to Great Britain, putting the bombers within easy striking distance of the western Soviet Union. “The order grew out of General [[w:Hoyt Vandenberg|[Hoyt] Vandenberg’s]] desire to do something to counter the impression of ineffectiveness conveyed by the meager results of American bombing in Korea,” writes Dingman in a 1988 issue of International Security. He points out that this was not the first occasion of Superfortress statesmanship. In 1948, after the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, two squadrons of B-29s were deployed to Western Europe. During the Berlin crisis, it was a bluff. The B-29s were not configured to handle nuclear weapons."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Carl A. Posey, “How the Korean War Almost Went Nuclear”, Air & Space Magazine, July 2015
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Korean_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Korean War
62 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Korean War →
Related Quotes
"For one, the films emerging from the war simply weren't that good," he says of a spate of forgettable movies that inc…"
"Halberstam writes that Korea took place before TV news came into its own. "Given the state of the technology, the foo…"
"The Korean War was fought for a just cause. After North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, U.S. forces were …"
"The United States is the power that introduced nuclear weapons into Korea, and it took this drastic step primarily to…"
"Somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 Korean women were mobilized into this slavery, along with smaller numbers of Fi…"
"In January 1956, Life magazine published an article that purportedly explained how the Eisenhower administration had …"
"Korea was not vital to U.S. interests but Truman and his aides were determined to respond to what they saw as Soviet-…"
"It will begin with its President taking a simple, firm resolution. The resolution will be: To forego the diversions o…"
"Sixteen years ago an event occurred in Korea that changed the shape of Asia and the world. On a June morning in 1950,…"
"More than 5.7 million American troops were engaged, resulting in more than 33,000 combat deaths and another 92,000 in…"