Strategic Air Command - Revision history

DavidB4-bot: /* External links */re-categorisation

2018-10-11T03:54:23Z

External links: re-categorisation

DavidB4-bot: /* SAC in popular culture */HTTP --> HTTPS [#1], replaced: http://www.imdb.com → https://www.imdb.com (6)

2018-09-26T20:28:18Z

SAC in popular culture: HTTP --> HTTPS [#1], replaced: http://www.imdb.com → https://www.imdb.com (6)

DavidB4-bot: clean up

2016-06-27T03:52:06Z

clean up

Show changes

TheAmericanRedoubt at 23:57, January 15, 2015

2015-01-15T23:57:49Z

Frey: /* The Missile Age */ Internal links

2008-10-04T20:09:46Z

The Missile Age: Internal links

Frey: Categories

2008-09-24T21:23:59Z

DuncanB: /* Reconnaissance */

2008-06-12T21:22:12Z

Reconnaissance

TerryH: Reverted edits by DuncanB (Talk); changed back to last version by TerryH

2008-03-10T19:22:18Z

Reverted edits by DuncanB (Talk); changed back to last version by TerryH

DuncanB at 19:01, March 10, 2008

2008-03-10T19:01:07Z

TerryH: /* References */

2008-03-07T23:20:18Z

References

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 [[Category:Cold War]]
 [[Category:United States Air Force]]
-[[Category:Nuclear Target Structures]]
+[[Category:Nuclear Defense]]

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 General LeMay specifically exhorted [[Hollywood]] producers to produce at least two films showing SAC in a sympathetic light:
-#In 1955, Actor [[James Stewart]] appeared in ''[[Strategic Air Command (film)|Strategic Air Command]]'' as an Air Force reserve officer recalled to duty by General LeMay (whose name is changed in the film) in the early years of LeMay's tenure as SAC commander. The period covered includes the then-current use of the B-36 and the introduction of the B-47.<ref>''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048667/ Strategic Air Command]''. Directed by [[Anthony Mann]]. With [[James Stewart]], [[June Allyson]], [[Frank Lovejoy]], and [[Barry Sullivan]]. [[Paramount Pictures]], 1955. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [http://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
+#In 1955, Actor [[James Stewart]] appeared in ''[[Strategic Air Command (film)|Strategic Air Command]]'' as an Air Force reserve officer recalled to duty by General LeMay (whose name is changed in the film) in the early years of LeMay's tenure as SAC commander. The period covered includes the then-current use of the B-36 and the introduction of the B-47.<ref>''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048667/ Strategic Air Command]''. Directed by [[Anthony Mann]]. With [[James Stewart]], [[June Allyson]], [[Frank Lovejoy]], and [[Barry Sullivan]]. [[Paramount Pictures]], 1955. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [https://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
-#In 1963, Actor [[Rock Hudson]] appeared in ''[[A Gathering of Eagles]]'' as a hard-nosed Air Force regular officer assigned to command a SAC wing whose previous commander has allowed it to become operationally unready. For this film, General LeMay gave specific orders to the [[456th Strategic Aerospace Wing]] ([[Beale Air Force Base]], [[California]]) and its personnel to allow filming on their base and cooperate fully with the producers of this film. He also allowed the producers to visit the command post at Offutt AFB.<ref>''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057090/ A Gathering of Eagles].'' Directed by [[Delbert Mann]]. With [[Rock Hudson]], [[Rod Taylor]], [[Mary Peach]], [[Barry Sullivan]], [[Robert Lansing]], [[Kevin McCarthy]], and [[Leif Erickson]]. [[Universal Pictures]], 1963. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [http://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
+#In 1963, Actor [[Rock Hudson]] appeared in ''[[A Gathering of Eagles]]'' as a hard-nosed Air Force regular officer assigned to command a SAC wing whose previous commander has allowed it to become operationally unready. For this film, General LeMay gave specific orders to the [[456th Strategic Aerospace Wing]] ([[Beale Air Force Base]], [[California]]) and its personnel to allow filming on their base and cooperate fully with the producers of this film. He also allowed the producers to visit the command post at Offutt AFB.<ref>''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057090/ A Gathering of Eagles].'' Directed by [[Delbert Mann]]. With [[Rock Hudson]], [[Rod Taylor]], [[Mary Peach]], [[Barry Sullivan]], [[Robert Lansing]], [[Kevin McCarthy]], and [[Leif Erickson]]. [[Universal Pictures]], 1963. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [https://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
 The second film illustrates the B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker and also contains a few brief sequences showing Titan missiles. It also contains an early sequence in which Rock Hudson's character demonstrates the tight [[positive control]] that SAC always maintained on its nuclear arsenal, with its authentication codes and required checking and crosschecking at every level of command, from SAC headquarters to the cockpit of every nuclear-armed bomber. This is an obvious counter-message to the unflattering inferences that General LeMay (then Air Force Chief of Staff) knew that two upcoming films would encourage viewers to draw:
 #In ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'', a SAC wing commander launches a totally unauthorized attack on the Soviet Union on nothing but his own personal authority, using a war plan that precluded any interdiction from the [[President of the United States|President]]. Unless the rogue wing can be recalled, a Soviet-built "doomsday system" will set off multiple thermonuclear detonations—automatically, and not subject to interdiction by anyone.<ref>''Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb''. Directed by [[Stanley Kubrick]]. With [[Peter Sellers]], [[George C. Scott]], [[Sterling Hayden]], and [[Slim Pickens]]. [[Hawk Films]], 1964. Because most of the characters' names carry connotations of mature themes, this film is cited without an outside link.</ref>
-#In ''[[Fail-Safe]]'', a false-positive missile-launch registration leads an airborne alert squadron of bombers to pass their "fail-safe points." Their crews then refuse to heed repeated and fervid appeals to turn back—and the President resorts to a ''very'' drastic action to ensure that the incineration of [[Moscow]] does not lead to all-out, full-scale, unlimited war.<ref>''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/ Fail-Safe]''. Directed by [[Sidney Lumet]]. With [[Dan O'Herlihy]], [[Walter Matthau]], [[Ed Binns]], and [[Henry Fonda]]. [[Columbia Pictures]], 1964. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [http://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
+#In ''[[Fail-Safe]]'', a false-positive missile-launch registration leads an airborne alert squadron of bombers to pass their "fail-safe points." Their crews then refuse to heed repeated and fervid appeals to turn back—and the President resorts to a ''very'' drastic action to ensure that the incineration of [[Moscow]] does not lead to all-out, full-scale, unlimited war.<ref>''[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058083/ Fail-Safe]''. Directed by [[Sidney Lumet]]. With [[Dan O'Herlihy]], [[Walter Matthau]], [[Ed Binns]], and [[Henry Fonda]]. [[Columbia Pictures]], 1964. Retrieved July 31, 2007, from the [https://www.imdb.com/ Internet Movie Database].</ref>
 No one has yet adduced any hard evidence that either scenario could possibly have played out during the Cold War era. However, Broyhill<ref name=Broyhill/> maintains that any of a number of human beings at SAC could have yielded to panic during the Cuban Crisis and for years afterward—and speaks with high praise of everyone in SAC because this did not happen.

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 No one has yet adduced any hard evidence that either scenario could possibly have played out during the Cold War era. However, Broyhill<ref name=Broyhill/> maintains that any of a number of human beings at SAC could have yielded to panic during the Cuban Crisis and for years afterward--and speaks with high praise of everyone in SAC because this did not happen.
 == Relevant Lists ==
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 [[Category:Cold War]]
 [[Category:United States Air Force]]

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 SAC's involvement in Vietnam climaxed with [[Operation Linebacker II]] in December of 1972. SAC's successes with this operation are credited with forcing the North Vietnamese to resume peace negotiations.<ref name=Zianet/>
-SAC had planned to acquire a new long-range bomber, the B-70, capable of carrying far heavier loads. However, persistent rumors arose that the Soviets were developing a rocket fighter-interceptor that would easily destroy the B-70 before it got close to target.<ref name=Belenko>Barron, John. ''MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko''. New York: Avon Books. 1981. ISBN 0380538687</ref> For that reason, and because of budgetary and political constraints, [[United States Congress|Congress]] cancelled the B-70 bomber. (The Soviets ''did'' produce a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor, the [[MiG-25 Foxbat]]. But only when [[Lieutenant]] [[Viktor Belenko]] escaped with his MiG-25 on September 6, 1976 and thus allowed American analysts to examine a MiG-25 first-hand did the Americans realize that, while the MiG-25 would have been a devastating interceptor, it would have been useless as a fighter.<ref name=Belenko/>)
+SAC had planned to acquire a new long-range bomber, the [[B-70 Valkyrie]], capable of carrying far heavier loads. However, persistent rumors arose that the Soviets were developing a rocket fighter-interceptor that would easily destroy the B-70 before it got close to target.<ref name=Belenko>Barron, John. ''MiG Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko''. New York: Avon Books. 1981. ISBN 0380538687</ref> For that reason, and because of budgetary and political constraints, [[United States Congress|Congress]] cancelled the B-70 bomber. (The Soviets ''did'' produce a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor, the [[MiG-25]] Foxbat. But only when [[Lieutenant]] [[Viktor Belenko]] escaped with his MiG-25 on September 6, 1976 and thus allowed American analysts to examine one first-hand did the Americans realize that, while the MiG-25 would have been a devastating interceptor, it would have been useless as a fighter.<ref name=Belenko/>)
 === The Reagan Era ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:23, September 24, 2008
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	* [http://www.sacmuseum.org/ Strategic Air Command Museum] (official site)		* [http://www.sacmuseum.org/ Strategic Air Command Museum] (official site)

−	[[Category:~~Military~~]]	+	[[Category:Cold War]]
		+	[[Category:United States Air Force]]

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 ==== Reconnaissance ====
 * [[U-2 Spy Plane]]
-* [[SR-71 Blackbird]]
+* [[SR-71| SR-71 Blackbird]]
 ==== Tankers ====
 * [[KB-29 Prop Tanker]]

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 General LeMay did not consider [[mutually assured destruction]] a real possibility during his tenure. He quite reasonably observed that the Soviet Union could not deliver nuclear devices as quickly or at such great range as SAC could. This was true enough while he held the command but no longer true in an era of [[intercontinental ballistic missiles]].
-But LeMay definitely believed in nuclear deterrence, and was determined to carry it out.(He once threatened to bomb the [[North Vietnamese]] "back to the Stone Age"). Everything he did in SAC was directed toward that end, from the network of bases he created (including several oversea bases) to the strict training regimen and discipline that he brought to SAC.<ref>Authors unknown. "[https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/PopTopics/SAC.htm The Emergence of the Strategic Air Command]." ''Air Force Historical Studies Office'', [[United States Air Force]], n.d. Retrieved July 31, 2007.</ref>
+But LeMay definitely believed in nuclear deterrence, and was determined to carry it out. Everything he did in SAC was directed toward that end, from the network of bases he created (including several oversea bases) to the strict training regimen and discipline that he brought to SAC.<ref>Authors unknown. "[https://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/PopTopics/SAC.htm The Emergence of the Strategic Air Command]." ''Air Force Historical Studies Office'', [[United States Air Force]], n.d. Retrieved July 31, 2007.</ref>
 === The Missile Age ===

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 == References ==
-<references/>
+{{reflist|2}}
 == External Links ==