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Perry Smith writes that Army Air Force planners during World War II failed to project accurately the nature of the security threats to the United Sates in the postwar world. Nevertheless, they achieved their major objective: to provide the rationale for 70-bomber groups and an inde-pendent Air Force. In the process of planning the post World War II Air Force, Smith tells us that:
• The planners’ primary objective was to make a case for an independent Air Force;
• Interservice and intraservice rivalry deeply influenced the planning process;
• The planners were of limited competence; and
• The limitations of air power were never considered.
The reason for this are summarized in Smith’s prescient observation:
“When doctrine becomes dogma, all kinds of counter-dogma signals can be ignored. If the les-sons of the Battle of Britain could be ignored, if the high losses in bombardment aircraft whenever they were seriously opposed by German fighters in the early, unescorted daylight raids in 1943 could be discounted, if it took the loss of 60 aircraft on a single mission over Schweinfurt in August 1943 and 60 more over Schweinfurt in October 1943 finally to convince all the Air Corps leaders that unescorted bombardment against defended targets was self-defeating as well as suicidal, then is there any reason to believe that attitudinal changes among the American public and the War Department would have permitted a different Air Force to develop?”
What others are saying
Not only is Perry Smith’s book an illuminating piece of Air Force organizational history, but it also represents an act of intellectual courage. All too many times, we get asked why military officers “never tell the truth until after retirement. ” This work is a living refutation of that canard. Written while Perry Smith was a relatively junior officer, the book’s revelations about the aggressive drive for an independent Air Force have stood the test of time. And despite the flak he received at the time for telling the unvarnished truth, Perry Smith went on to become a distinguished general officer.
Ken Allard, Professor
Georgetown University
About the author
Perry M. Smith is a teacher, a best selling author, a radio and TV commentator, graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, and a retired major general in the U. S. Air Force, where he served for 30 years. While serving, he earned his Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University. His thesis was the genesis for this book. He has written five other books including Assignment Pentagon and the best selling Rules and Tools for Leaders with over 300,000 copies in print.
During his military career he commanded an F–15 fighter wing and served as the top Air Force planner. During the Vietnam War, he flew 180 combat missions over Laos and North Vietnam.
He served as CNN’s military analyst during the Gulf War of 1991. He resigned from CNN in 1998 in protest over CNN’s bogus nerve gas special, and now serves as an analyst for NBC TV and CBS Radio News.
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Book Details |
• Pages: 144
• Endnotes: No
• Appendix: No
• Point size: 10.00
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• Copyright: 2003
• Original publication year: 1972
• LCCN No.: 2002107403
• Original country of publication: United States
• Original ISBN: 1-932080-84-8
• Edition type: Reprint
• Binding: trade Paperback
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Aerospace & NASA
American Air Force History