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A review by grifen87
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell
3.0
On the surface, the Bomber Mafia is a semi-technical but reader-friendly account of bombing strategies in World War II and the advent of guided bombing, but on a deeper level it's a discussion of the ethical dilemmas and tradeoffs involved in war strategy. For example, the question arises: should you invent something with good intentions if it could possibly be used to do more harm than before? In this context, that means inventing a bombsight so that bombing crews can aim for targets of military significance rather than blind-bombing entire cities but then seeing your "humane" bombsight being used to specifically target civilian districts. But we can apply this empirical question to many other scenarios such as the invention of the internet, the iPhone, the automobile, etc.
There is also another ethical question presented in this story: is it better to make war shorter and less humane or longer and more humane? This was the question faced by two bombing captains in the Pacific theater who chose different answers. The first chose the humane, conventional path and was replaced by the second who took the initiative to fire-bomb some sixteen Japanese cities with ridiculously high destruction rates, setting the stage such that the infamous atomic bombs were superfluous in comparison to the destruction he had done. In retrospect, he spared Japan of the consequences that would have resulted from a more drawn-out war, i.e. the occupation of Japan by both Russia and the United States, starvation of the Japanese population, and the dividing-up of the nation to both victors, but it's not likely that LeMay, this second captain, was aware of this. LeMay's strategy was certainly controversial but I'm sure none of us would've wanted to face the dilemma he did under the pressure of his superiors with the awareness that he would be replaced if he failed.
On the book itself, I do have a few comments. The title "Bomber Mafia" is catchy but was more confusing to me than anything. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention, but it wasn't clear to me who exactly the Bomber Mafia was. Did they call themselves this? Were they a coordinated group working together? It seems that they were the men who revolutionized bombing strategy, but they were more a handful of individuals working in parallel who happened to bring about this revolution rather than a "mafia" as such.
It also isn't clear to me what about this story inspired Gladwell's obsession. I assume it was the ethical questions but I'm curious to hear more about his obsession with this topic and how it came about.
There also isn't a clear connection between the narrative of the bombsight and the later bombing of Japan. If LeMay bombed Japan with napalm, did he really need the bombsight? Maybe this was also just a lack of attention on my part.
I did appreciate how the audiobook was presented more as a podcast than a book, and not only that but I was able to move almost seamlessly between the book and audiobook despite this.
Finally, I appreciate Gladwell's exploration into this topic and the associated ethical questions. These ethical explorations are a large part of why I study history, and I think it's crucial for any society to look back on its past, confront its assumptions about itself and other societies, and consider that feedback objectively to improve itself for the future. Unfortunately we in the United States tend to encourage a systemic cultural amnesia, assuming we know better than our ancestors and thus losing ourselves to pragmatic self-interest.
There is also another ethical question presented in this story: is it better to make war shorter and less humane or longer and more humane? This was the question faced by two bombing captains in the Pacific theater who chose different answers. The first chose the humane, conventional path and was replaced by the second who took the initiative to fire-bomb some sixteen Japanese cities with ridiculously high destruction rates, setting the stage such that the infamous atomic bombs were superfluous in comparison to the destruction he had done. In retrospect, he spared Japan of the consequences that would have resulted from a more drawn-out war, i.e. the occupation of Japan by both Russia and the United States, starvation of the Japanese population, and the dividing-up of the nation to both victors, but it's not likely that LeMay, this second captain, was aware of this. LeMay's strategy was certainly controversial but I'm sure none of us would've wanted to face the dilemma he did under the pressure of his superiors with the awareness that he would be replaced if he failed.
On the book itself, I do have a few comments. The title "Bomber Mafia" is catchy but was more confusing to me than anything. Maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention, but it wasn't clear to me who exactly the Bomber Mafia was. Did they call themselves this? Were they a coordinated group working together? It seems that they were the men who revolutionized bombing strategy, but they were more a handful of individuals working in parallel who happened to bring about this revolution rather than a "mafia" as such.
It also isn't clear to me what about this story inspired Gladwell's obsession. I assume it was the ethical questions but I'm curious to hear more about his obsession with this topic and how it came about.
There also isn't a clear connection between the narrative of the bombsight and the later bombing of Japan. If LeMay bombed Japan with napalm, did he really need the bombsight? Maybe this was also just a lack of attention on my part.
I did appreciate how the audiobook was presented more as a podcast than a book, and not only that but I was able to move almost seamlessly between the book and audiobook despite this.
Finally, I appreciate Gladwell's exploration into this topic and the associated ethical questions. These ethical explorations are a large part of why I study history, and I think it's crucial for any society to look back on its past, confront its assumptions about itself and other societies, and consider that feedback objectively to improve itself for the future. Unfortunately we in the United States tend to encourage a systemic cultural amnesia, assuming we know better than our ancestors and thus losing ourselves to pragmatic self-interest.