Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82029918
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Curtis E. LeMay, aviator and U.S. Army and Air Force officer, were deposited and then given to the Library of Congress by LeMay in 1965. Additions were received as gift from him in 1966 and 1969.
The LeMay Papers were processed in 1968. The finding aid was revised in 2014.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs and other pictorial material have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Motion picture films, tape recording, soundscriber recordings, and phonograph recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the LeMay Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Curtis E. LeMay in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Curtis E. LeMay are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Government regulations control the use of security classified material in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified materials.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Curtis E. LeMay Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Curtis Emerson LeMay (1906-1990) span the years 1918-1969, with most of the material dated between 1943 and 1969. The material consists of correspondence, diaries, speeches, teletype messages, flight orders, mission reports, strategic plans and operation reports, appointment calendars, maps, photographs, commission, scrapbooks, and other papers that document LeMay's career in the army and air force and his 1968 campaign for vice president on the American Independent Party ticket. The papers are organized into ten series: Special Personal Correspondence, Command Assignment Papers, Miscellany, Campaign papers, Classified, Top Secret, Restricted Data (Classified), Restricted Data (Top Secret), North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Oversize.
The bulk of the collection is centered in the Command Assignment Papers series. Starting chiefly with flight books from LeMay's service in the United States Army Air Corps in 1928, it treats his commands in the European and China-Burma-India theaters during World War II and his charge of strategic air operations against Japan involving saturation bombing of Japanese cities. Included in addition to plans, orders, mission reports, bombing surveys, and intelligence reports are diaries, minutes of commanders meetings, and correspondence from 1943-1945.
After World War II, LeMay was assigned to Headquarters Air Materiel Command, and later to the Pentagon to be the first deputy chief of air staff for research and development. In 1947, he was named the first commander of the United States Air Force Europe, where, during his tenure, he oversaw the Berlin Airlift of 1948. Files for the period include a diary, official correspondence, and reports on the status of the airlift. Material from his tenure as head of the Strategic Air Command, 1948-1957, contains diaries, personal and official correspondence, aircraft operations reports, subject files, and speeches and statements before the public and congressional committees. As chief of staff of the air force from 1961 to 1965, LeMay was an advocate of increased defense spending, notable for promoting an aggressive nuclear strategy and clashing with the John F. Kennedy administration over the Cuban missile crisis. Documents from this career phase, like most of the collection, are organized and described as compiled by LeMay or his staff. They include, in addition to extensive official correspondence files, a "Top Secret File" of documents maintained by his office as a separate grouping because of their government-security classification. Although the original designation and order have been retained, most of the documents in the grouping have been declassified and made available for research.
Scrapbooks in the Miscellany series cover the range of LeMay's military career, while the Campaign Papers series focuses on his run in 1968 as the vice presidential candidate on the American Independent Party ticket led by Alabama Governor George Wallace. Included are correspondence, speeches, clippings, and other material from the campaign.
This collection is arranged in ten series:
Letters received and copies of letters sent, together with enclosures and attachments.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent.
Official correspondence of letters received and copies of letters sent, teletype messages, flight orders, mission reports, strategic plans and operation reports, speeches, diaries, appointment calendars, miscellaneous documents, semiofficial and personal correspondence and miscellaneous nonofficial papers.
Arranged according to LeMay's command assignments and organized within by topic or type of material.
Certificates, clippings, commissions, photographs, scrapbooks, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material.
Correspondence, telegrams, speeches, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material.
Government-security documents.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed
Government-security documents.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed
Government-security documents.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed
Government-security documents.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed
Government-security documents.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed
Maps and photographs.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed