Intercept interview with Morley

[Pete Mellor]

59 minutes ago, David McLean said:

Pete, Paul…from memory, several of LeMay’s remarks during Cuban missile crisis meetings and perhaps other times,could rightly be interpreted as incitement to mutiny. 
As a personal aside, we lived in Lincoln NE in October 1963…at the height of that awful week, about 10pm, the air raid siren atop the primary school near Bradfield Drive, went off for several minutes. You bet we were scared, more like terrified.

October '62 David.  Yes, I'm sure LeMay was of the opinion that the missiles in Cuba should have been taken out by U.S.A.F.  I believe initially that was also the opinion of RFK too.  But, evidence for LeMay attempting to organise a coup against JFK with the JCS is proving elusive.

Just short of my tenth birthday, over here in England, I was scared too!

[David Andrews]

"He'd tried to organize a coup" seems overly emphatic, to the point of being misleading.  "Accused of" would be an appropriate qualifier.  Nonetheless, the taint has stuck to LeMay, so early in origin that in his lifetime he had to deny it for Kantor's book. 

Perhaps a further research topic would be to locate the "many paragraphs" by contemporary writers that LeMay felt misrepresented his intentions, and the interview sources for those remarks.  Who was ratting out, or mischaracterizing, LeMay on this issue?

The Kennedy brothers' vocalized fears of a military coup are also significant here: what JFK said about Seven Days in May; what RFK communicated to the Soviets.

Edited April 14, 2023 by David Andrews

[David McLean]

Yes, Pete, October 1962, and by July 1963 our family was living in Sydney Australia, not Sidney Nebraska. 
“Coup”, is a word open to interpretation of course, and in the context of the JFK period 

[David McLean]

(continued)…in the contest between Kennedy and LeMay/Lemnitzer over tactics, and ultimately, nuclear strategy, a “coup” might just mean who calls the shots, and LeMay had been “successful”  doing so tactically  in both theatres in WW11. Fortunately Truman and JFK asserted control over tactics and strategy, the latter at the cost of his life and presidency. 
 

 

[Bob Ness]

On 4/14/2023 at 12:31 AM, David McLean said:

Pete, Paul…from memory, several of LeMay’s remarks during Cuban missile crisis meetings and perhaps other times,could rightly be interpreted as incitement to mutiny. 
As a personal aside, we lived in Lincoln NE in October 1963…at the height of that awful week, about 10pm, the air raid siren atop the primary school near Bradfield Drive, went off for several minutes. You bet we were scared, more like terrified.

I was on Walker Drive! No I think we were on the base by then on Vance Drive in Arnold Heights.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Bob Ness