A changing of the guard

The article explains how the influence of bomber generals declined and that of the fighter generals rose In the period 1962-82. The bomber group's control of key leadership positions in the postwar years alienated non-SAC elements and led to dogmatic doctrine affecting the whole Air Force. The Air Staff was filled with absolutists who zealously pursued high-tech strategic capabilities. Training and technical demands of nuclear and conventional war diverged. The SAC-dominated Air Force focused so much on its key strategic challenge that it had little time for thinking about conventional war. Even as the bomber-dominated Air Force was becoming set in its ways, however, a new era was about to arrive. The Kennedy Administration came to power in January 1961, and, in weeks, its officials were deeply enmeshed in the remaking of US national defense strategy and policy. The new President respected Le-May's popularity within the Air Force, and so he selected him to succeed Gen. Thomas D. White as Chief of Staff in 1961.