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War Mobilization and Statistics: The Case of General Curtis Le May and Robert McNamara The Fog of War (excerpt from Chapter 9 at 25:06 to 43:13) Below are some questions to help focus your viewing of the video.

1. What did the Air Force learn from their studies on abort rates? What kind of a commander was Lemay?

2. How did Le May’s decision to move bombing to the Marianas devastate Japan?

3. How did Le May change his bombing strategy to increase efficiency in Japan?

4. Le May argues, if the US had lost the war, he and McNamara would have been prosecuted as war criminals. What do you think?

McNamara raises two important questions related to firebombing and dropping of nuclear bomb

• “I think the issue is: in order to win a war should you kill 100,000 people in one night, by

firebombing or any other way?”

• “I don’t fault Truman for dropping the nuclear bomb. The US-Japanese War was one of the most brutal wars in all of human history—kamikaze pilots, suicide, unbelievable. What one can criticize is that the human race prior to that time—and today—has not really grappled with what are, I’ll call it, ‘the rules of war.’ Was there a rule that said you shouldn’t bomb, shouldn’t kill, shouldn’t burn to death 100,000 civilians in one night?”

• What do you think?