Selling Air Power

Author : Steve Call
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1603440917

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Selling Air Power by Steve Call Pdf

In Selling Air Power, Steve Call provides the first comprehensive study of the efforts of post-war air power advocates to harness popular culture in support of their agenda. In the 1940s and much of the 1950s, hardly a month went by without at least one blatantly pro-air power article appearing in general interest magazines. Public fascination with flight helped create and sustain exaggerated expectations for air power in the minds of both its official proponents and the American public. Articles in the Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, and Life trumpeted the secure future assured by American air superiority. Military figures like Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and Curtis E. LeMay, radio-television personalities such as Arthur Godfrey, cartoon figures like Steve Canyon, and actors like Jimmy Stewart played key roles in the unfolding campaign. Movies like Twelve O'Clock High!, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, and A Gathering of Eagles projected onto the public imagination vivid images confirming what was coming to be the accepted wisdom: that America's safety against the Soviet threat could best be guaranteed by air power, coupled with nuclear capability. But as the Cold War continued and the specter of the mushroom cloud grew more prominent in American minds, another, more sinister interpretation began to take hold. Call chronicles the shift away from the heroic, patriotic posture of the years just after World War II, toward the threatening, even bizarre imagery of books and movies like Catch-22, On the Beach, and Dr. Strangelove. Call's careful analysis goes beyond the public relations campaigns to probe the intellectual climate that shaped them and gave them power. Selling Air Power adds a critical layer of understanding to studies in military and aviation history, as well as American popular culture.

Author : Jeremy Black
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9781442250970

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Air Power by Jeremy Black Pdf

This essential book offers a compelling and original interpretation of the rise of military aviation. Jeremy Black, one of the world’s finest scholars of military history, provides a lucid analysis of the use of airpower over land and sea both during the two world wars and the more limited wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Considering both the theory and praxis of air power, the author begins with hot air balloons, and then highlights the use of zeppelins, piston engine fighters, jet bombers, and finally the so-called Military Revolution of today. While discussing the growth of American and European military aviation, Black, a pioneer in emphasizing the importance of non-Western military history for understanding global developments, also traces the emergence of air power in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Black breaks new ground by exploring not only to conventional war—both inside and outside Europe—but also to the use of air power in unconventional wars, especially critical given to the spread of insurgencies around the globe. He vividly describes traditional debates over the pros and cons of strategic bombing and aircraft carriers versus battleships and gives equal attention to managerial, doctrinal, and technological innovations. The author shows how better management resulted in increasing lethality of close air support of the RAF during the latter part of World War II and at the same times highlights the limits of air power with case studies of the two Gulf Wars. The author goes beyond our traditional understanding of air power associated with bombing and fighter engagements, adding the important elements associated with naval power, including ground/logistics support, anti-aircraft measures, and political constraints. As he explains, air power has become Western politicians’ weapon of choice, spreading maximum destruction with the minimum of commitment. His current and comprehensive study considers how we got to this point, and what the future has in store. Anyone seeking a balanced, accurate understanding of air power in history will find this book an essential introduction.

Author : Stephen Budiansky
Publisher : Viking Adult
Page : 568 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015058866933

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Air Power by Stephen Budiansky Pdf

With "Air Power," a gifted writer pens an epic up-to-the-minute history of the airplane in combat--the pilots, the strategists, the weaponry, and the high-tech battles they increasingly dominate.

Author : John Buckley
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2006-05-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781135362768

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Air Power in the Age of Total War by John Buckley Pdf

Warfare in the first half of the 20th century was fundamentally and irrovocably altered by the birth and subsequent development of air power. This work assesses the role of air power in changing the face of battle on land and sea. Utilizing late-1990s research, the author demonstrates that the phenomenon of air power was both a cause and a crucial accelerating factor contributing to the theory and practice of total war. For instance, the expansion of warfare to the homefront was a direct result of bombing and indirectly due to the extent of national economic mobilization required to support first rate air power status. In addition, the move away from the principle of total war with the onset of the Cold War and the replacement of air power by ICBMs is thoroughly examined. This work should provide students of international history, war studies, defence and strategic studies with an insight into 20th-century warfare.

Author : Robin Higham,Mark Parillo
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813140728

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The Influence of Airpower upon History by Robin Higham,Mark Parillo Pdf

From early zeppelins, to the Luftwaffe and the Enola Gay, to the unmanned aerial vehicles of today, air power has long been regarded as an invaluable instrument of war. However, nations have employed aircraft for many other purposes as well; they provide security and surveillance, and they are vital to myriad diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. Air power has become a means for statesmen to advance a variety of goals, opening up new possibilities and problems in times of peace as well as war. The Influence of Air Power upon History examines the many ways in which aviation technology has impacted policymaking since 1903. It analyzes air strategy in nations around the world and explores how a country's presumed technological capability, or lack thereof, has become a crucial aspect of diplomacy. Together, the essays in this insightful volume offer a greater understanding of the history of military force and diplomatic relations in the global community.

Author : John Andreas Olsen
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 609 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : History
ISBN : 9781597977449

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Global Air Power by John Andreas Olsen Pdf

What influences have shaped air power since human flight became a reality more than a hundred years ago? Global Air Power provides insight into the evolution of air power theory and practice by examining the experience of six of the world’s largest air forces--those of the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Russia, India, and China--and of representative smaller air forces in Pacific Asia, Latin America, and continental Europe. The chapters, written by highly regarded scholars and military leaders, explore how various nations have integrated air power into their armed forces and how they have applied air power in both regular and irregular warfare and in peacetime operations. They cover the organizational, professional, and doctrinal issues that air forces confronted in the past, the lessons learned from victory and defeat, and emerging challenges and opportunities. Further, Global Air Power supplements the traditional military perspective with examinations of the ideological, economic, and cultural factors that give air forces their distinctive characters. Chapters show how the interplay among these internal factors, together with external challenges, determines the structure, role, and effectiveness of air forces. Together, these chapters illuminate universal trends as well as similarities and differences among the world’s air forces. Its combination of military history and sociopolitical analysis makes Global Air Power especially valuable to a broad range of historians, air power specialists, and general readers interested in national defense and international relations.

Author : Ryan D. Wadle
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2019-03-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9780806164199

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Selling Sea Power by Ryan D. Wadle Pdf

The accepted narrative of the interwar U.S. Navy is one of transformation from a battle-centric force into a force that could fight on the “three planes” of war: in the skies, on the water, and under the waves. The political and cultural tumult that accompanied this transformation is another story. Ryan D. Wadle’s Selling Sea Power explores this little-known but critically important aspect of naval history. After World War I, the U.S. Navy faced numerous challenges: a call for naval arms limitation, the ascendancy of air power, and budgetary constraints exacerbated by the Great Depression. Selling Sea Power tells the story of how the navy met these challenges by engaging in protracted public relations campaigns at a time when the means and methods of reaching the American public were undergoing dramatic shifts. While printed media continued to thrive, the rapidly growing film and radio industries presented new means by which the navy could connect with politicians and the public. Deftly capturing the institutional nuances and the personalities in play, Wadle tracks the U.S. Navy’s at first awkward but ultimately successful manipulation of mass media. At the same time, he analyzes what the public could actually see of the service in the variety of media available to them, including visual examples from progressively more sophisticated—and effective—public relations campaigns. Integrating military policy and strategy with the history of American culture and politics, Selling Sea Power offers a unique look at the complex links between the evolution of the art and industry of persuasion and the growth of the modern U.S. Navy, as well as the connections between the workings of communications and public relations and the command of military and political power.

Author : Walter J. Boyne
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781844151998

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The Influence of Air Power Upon History by Walter J. Boyne Pdf

The Influence of Air Power upon History is a thorough examination of how air power was applied from the very earliest days of the balloon down to the latest use of space technology. Including both air and aerospace military power in his considerations, Boyne (a retired U.S. Air Force colonel) surveys, in a celebratory fashion, the use of air power in international conflict. His analysis is perfectly in line with the technological fetishism of most U.S. war planners, almost invariably arguing that the imposition of superior air power is the most decisive factor in winning wars, and even suggesting that the American war in Vietnam would have been won with just a little more bombing. Chapters cover the development and deployment of air power doctrines by the United States, its allies, and its enemies in wars in which it was politically concerned

Author : John Andreas Olsen
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 603 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781597973236

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John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power by John Andreas Olsen Pdf

Dr. John Andreas Olsen has written an insightful, compelling biography of retired U.S. Air Force colonel John A. Warden III, the brilliant but controversial air warfare theorist and architect of Operation Desert Storm s air campaign. Warden s radical ideas about air power s purposes and applications, promulgated at the expense of his own career, sparked the ongoing revolution in military affairs. Legendary in defense circles, Warden is also the author of "The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat" (republished by Brassey s, Inc. in 1989). Presenting both the positives and negatives of Warden s personality and impact in this objective portrait, Olsen offers a trenchant analysis of his revolutionary ideas and great accomplishments. "

Author : Sir John Cotesworth Slessor
Publisher : University of Alabama Press
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2009-08-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780817356101

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Air Power and Armies by Sir John Cotesworth Slessor Pdf

An account of Sir John Cotesworth Slessor (1897–1979), one of Great Britain's most influential airmen Sir John Slessor played a significant role in building the World War II Anglo-American air power partnership as an air planner on the Royal Air Force Staff, the British Chiefs of Staff, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff. He coordinated allied strategy in 1940–41, helped create an Anglo-American bomber alliance in 1942, and drafted the compromise at the Casablanca Conference that broke a deadlock in Anglo-American strategic debate. Slessor was instrumental in defeating the U-boat menace as RAF Coastal Commander, and later shared responsibility for directing Allied air operations in the Mediterranean. Few aspects of the allied air effort escaped his influence: pilot training, aircraft procurement, and dissemination of operational intelligence and information all depended to a degree on Slessor. His influence on Anglo-American operational planning paved the way for a level of cooperation and combined action never before undertaken by the military forces of two great nations.

Author : David Nevin
Publisher : Time Life Medical
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Aeronautics, Military
ISBN : 1844470342

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Architects of Air Power by David Nevin Pdf

By the late 1930s air power had dramatically altered the strategic balance in Europe. But the seeds of the new order had been sown in World War I, when fledgling military air forces first emerged as adjuncts to the traditional armed services. Military leaders soon recognised its value as an aerial scout. And before long, fast fighter planes armed with machine guns were ordered into battle to support the armies of both the Allies and the Central Powers.

Author : Martin van Creveld,Kenneth Brower,Steven Canby
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2012-08-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 147836100X

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Air Power and Maneuver Warfare by Martin van Creveld,Kenneth Brower,Steven Canby Pdf

An essential part of the Air War College curriculum consists of the study of military history and specific campaigns. Part 1 of this manuscript presents an attempt to clarify the relationship between air power and maneuver warfare since 1939, a subject that derives its importance from the fact that maneuver warfare has been the U.S. Army's official doctrine since the early eighties and remains so to the present day. Part 2 contains the collective wisdom of the military doctrine analysis of the Air University on the same subjects, as well as the way in which we have presented them.

Author : Mark Clodfelter
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2006-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0803264542

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The Limits of Air Power by Mark Clodfelter Pdf

Tracing the use of air power in World War II and the Korean War, Mark Clodfelter explains how U. S. Air Force doctrine evolved through the American experience in these conventional wars only to be thwarted in the context of a limited guerrilla struggle in Vietnam. Although a faith in bombing's sheer destructive power led air commanders to believe that extensive air assaults could win the war at any time, the Vietnam experience instead showed how even intense aerial attacks may not achieve military or political objectives in a limited war. Based on findings from previously classified documents in presidential libraries and air force archives as well as on interviews with civilian and military decision makers, The Limits of Air Power argues that reliance on air campaigns as a primary instrument of warfare could not have produced lasting victory in Vietnam. This Bison Books edition includes a new chapter that provides a framework for evaluating air power effectiveness in future conflicts.

Author : Dr Ian Gooderson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2013-05-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136305955

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Air Power at the Battlefront by Dr Ian Gooderson Pdf

Ian Gooderson presents a study of close air support in World War II, with the analysis focusing on the use of tactical air power by British and American forces during the campaigns in Italy and northwestern Europe between 1943 and 1945.

Author : Raymond Estep
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 1956
Category : Aeronatics, Military
ISBN : UOM:39015021087500

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An Air Power Bibliography by Raymond Estep Pdf