Curtis LeMay ordered the firebombing of Tokyo that killed more people in a single night than either atomic bomb — over 100,000 civilians burned alive in a raid he designed to maximize destruction. He later ran the Strategic Air Command, advocated for a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union, and ran for vice president on George Wallace’s segregationist ticket. He was the most effective and most terrifying American military commander of the twentieth century.

This episode traces LeMay from his Ohio childhood through the European bombing campaigns, the Tokyo firebombing, the Strategic Air Command, and the political career that revealed just how far he was willing to go.

• LeMay’s transformation of the Pacific bombing campaign from high-altitude precision to low-level firebombing
• The March 9, 1945 Tokyo raid — the deadliest single air attack in human history
• The Strategic Air Command and the nuclear-armed bomber fleet he built to deter the Soviets
• The Cuban Missile Crisis advocacy for strikes, the Wallace vice-presidential run, and LeMay’s legacy of total war