General Curtis LeMay implemented the strategic bombing strategy over Japan in World War II. Serving as United States Air Force Chief of Staff under President Johnson, LeMay disagreed with Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War. Rather than gradual escalation, LeMay supported an immediate heavy bombing strategy. In his 1965 memoir, LeMay wrote: "The military task confronting us is to make it so expensive for the North Vietnamese that they will stop their aggressing against South Viet Nam and Laos. If you make it too expensive for them, they will stop. They don't want to lose everything they have. . . . We must throw a punch that really hurts. For example, we could knock out their oil. They don't have oil of their own; it has to come into the country, so there are rich targets, in storage areas sprinkled around. Knock them all out. This immediately brings a lot of things to a halt: transportation and power particularly. It would be the simplest possible application of strategic bombardment, and you could do the job with conventional weapons. You wouldn't have to get into a nuclear fracas."
