The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

Precision. I savor those times when a book leads me to question my thinking. I’ve always thought that indiscriminate bombing in war was wrong, and that precision should be deployed to avoid civilian deaths. During World War II, I considered the precision bombing efforts by General Haywood Hansell to be morally superior to the widespread and intense method deployed by General Curtis LeMay. After reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book titled, The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, I can understand that LeMay’s massive bombing may have ultimately saved lives and represented a moral choice that could be viewed more favorably than I thought. While LeMay’s tactics replaced Hansell’s during World War II, precision bombing has since prevailed. Readers interested in this subject should enjoy this thoughtful book, which I recommend in the audio version, which was the original format used by Gladwell, and uses historical audio to supplement the text. Rating: Five-star (I love it) Click here to purchase The Bomber Mafia from amazon.com.