Scope and Content Note
The papers of Curtis Emerson LeMay (1906-1990) span the years 1918-1969, with most of the material dated between 1943 and 1969. The material consists of correspondence, diaries, speeches, teletype messages, flight orders, mission reports, strategic plans and operation reports, appointment calendars, maps, photographs, commission, scrapbooks, and other papers that document LeMay's career in the army and air force and his 1968 campaign for vice president on the American Independent Party ticket. The papers are organized into ten series: Special Personal Correspondence, Command Assignment Papers, Miscellany, Campaign papers, Classified, Top Secret, Restricted Data (Classified), Restricted Data (Top Secret), North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Oversize.
The bulk of the collection is centered in the Command Assignment Papers series. Starting chiefly with flight books from LeMay's service in the United States Army Air Corps in 1928, it treats his commands in the European and China-Burma-India theaters during World War II and his charge of strategic air operations against Japan involving saturation bombing of Japanese cities. Included in addition to plans, orders, mission reports, bombing surveys, and intelligence reports are diaries, minutes of commanders meetings, and correspondence from 1943-1945.
After World War II, LeMay was assigned to Headquarters Air Materiel Command, and later to the Pentagon to be the first deputy chief of air staff for research and development. In 1947, he was named the first commander of the United States Air Force Europe, where, during his tenure, he oversaw the Berlin Airlift of 1948. Files for the period include a diary, official correspondence, and reports on the status of the airlift. Material from his tenure as head of the Strategic Air Command, 1948-1957, contains diaries, personal and official correspondence, aircraft operations reports, subject files, and speeches and statements before the public and congressional committees. As chief of staff of the air force from 1961 to 1965, LeMay was an advocate of increased defense spending, notable for promoting an aggressive nuclear strategy and clashing with the John F. Kennedy administration over the Cuban missile crisis. Documents from this career phase, like most of the collection, are organized and described as compiled by LeMay or his staff. They include, in addition to extensive official correspondence files, a "Top Secret File" of documents maintained by his office as a separate grouping because of their government-security classification. Although the original designation and order have been retained, most of the documents in the grouping have been declassified and made available for research.
Scrapbooks in the Miscellany series cover the range of LeMay's military career, while the Campaign Papers series focuses on his run in 1968 as the vice presidential candidate on the American Independent Party ticket led by Alabama Governor George Wallace. Included are correspondence, speeches, clippings, and other material from the campaign.