Jimmy Stewart, Curtis LeMay, and the Selling of the Strategic Air Command

In 1955, Paramount Pictures released one of their tentpole VistaVision epics, Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart and directed by his longtime collaborator, Anthony Mann. Strategic Air Command is peak, high-resolution, widescreen 1950s propaganda at its finest, and while not a great film (David and I argue about that aspect too!), its time and place in the building of the mythology of Curtis LeMay's US Air Force bombing arm offers a fascinating insight into the mindset of both LeMay and Jimmy Stewart.

David, the host of The Cold War channel on YouTube, joins me to bring our long-running Bluesky debate about this film to the channel and look at a film that had US military cooperation at a level that would make Michael Bay and Tom Cruise green with envy.

Check out The Cold War channel on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheColdWarTV

Follow David on Bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarhost.bsky.social

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