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Who Invented The B-29 Essay

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During World War II, the US Air force developed the B-29, which could bomb from high altitudes and was thought to destroy targets much more efficiently and effectively. McNamara analyzed the bombing operations to make them more efficient. The B-29 could get above the fighter aircrafts and above air defenses so the loss rate would be much less, but accuracy also declined. With that in mind, the planes were lowered down from 23,000 feet to 5,000 feet and it was decided to bomb the cities with firebombs. In a single night, 67 Japanese cities were burned and 100,000 Japanese civilians were killed. From what I have seen, McNamara does believe that those actions constituted war crimes. He himself admitted that he believed General LeMay was right when he said that if they had lost the war, they would have all been prosecuted as war criminals as they were behaving as war criminals. When speaking about the plan devised to firebomb Japanese cities, he tries to almost absolve himself of blame. When he spoke about making the planes more efficient, he said that they were made to be more efficient in terms of weakening the enemy, not in the sense killing more people. Additionally, he doesn't want to admit to having suggested the plan to LeMay and having put it in his mind for him to use. …show more content…

Someone of his caliber and his position should have known that there are clearly written rules regarding war and there have been for centuries. The Just War Theory has been around for centuries and has specific principles that must be met and followed for a war to be justified and McNamara most likely knew that these principles, especially those concerning proportionality and discrimination between civilians and combatants, were not being followed when they bombed

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