It's July 1961, an official ceremony at the White House.

President Kennedy stands at the microphone, dark suit, white shirt, thin black tie.

Next to him is a second man, shorter, wide to the chest, large square head, hair parted

triumphantly just off the middle, a thicket of decorations on the left breast of his uniform.

I want to express our great pleasure at the assumption of this responsibility by General

May Curtis Emerson Lemay.

The old cliche says that history is written by the victors.

In that line of Kennedy's, he was one of the most distinguished combat commanders of

World War II, is Exhibit A. Distinguished refers to the events of 1945 when Lemay ordered

a bombing campaign that resulted in the deaths of half a million Japanese civilians.

In a candid moment, Lemay once told one of his subordinates, if we lose this war, we'll

be tried as war criminals, which is almost certainly true, but they didn't lose.

After the war, Lemay joined the strategic air command SAC, where he was responsible for

most of America's nuclear arsenal at a time when war with the Soviet Union seemed imminent.

Then in 1961, he became head of the whole air force, standing next to Kennedy on the podium.

Mr. President, I appreciate very much that taking a time out from your busy schedule to participate

in this ceremony, I'm sure you realize that so, a member of the armed servicemen, I'll

be coming cheap as fast as the servicemen, as the highest honor that can come to him.

Lemay didn't get tried as a war criminal.

He got promoted.

My name is Malcolm Gladwell, you're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things

overlooked and misunderstood.

...