AF Gen. LeMay, 83, Dies of Heart Attack

Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, who relayed the orders to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, died today. He was 83.

The retired four-star general, who would have been 84 on Nov. 15, died of a heart attack at the 22nd Strategic Hospital at March Air Force Base, Sgt. Steve Mahnke said.

To an adoring American public during World War II, LeMay was “Old Iron Pants,” and he was usually described as “cigar-chomping,” “gruff” or “brusque.” He was a strict disciplinarian who asked much of his fliers, but no more than he asked of himself.

But his hero image began to fade somewhat during the postwar years as he continued to talk like a combat man, observing that most Americans had a “phobia” about nuclear weapons (“Just another weapon in the arsenal”), and suggesting that North Vietnam be bombed “back into the Stone Age.”

LeMay directed the air attack on Japan at the end of World War II.

Years later, he said the nuclear bombings were unnecessary to force Japan’s surrender.

“We felt that our incendiary bombings had been so successful that Japan would collapse before we invaded,” LeMay said in a 1985 interview.

“We went ahead and dropped the bombs because President (Harry S.) Truman told me to do it. He told me in a personal letter.”

LeMay had been living in Newport Beach since he was fired from his post-military job as board chairman of a Chatsworth electronics firm. The firing came after he served as the vice presidential running mate of third-party candidate George Wallace in the 1968 presidential campaign.

During the campaign, LeMay attracted demonstrators who chanted “Bombs away with Curtis LeMay!”

He caused some embarrassment for Wallace by saying he would use nuclear weapons “if I found it necessary,” a comment Wallace contended angrily was reported out of context.