Editing Curtis LeMay (section)

===Berlin Airlift===
[[File:lemay4.jpg|right|thumb|General Curtis E. LeMay]]

After World War II, LeMay was already thinking about [[deterrence theory]] and how the next war would be fought.{{r|rhodes19950611}} He was briefly transferred to [[The Pentagon]] as deputy chief of Air Staff for Research & Development. In 1947, LeMay returned to Europe as commander of [[United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa|USAF Europe]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/afhra-k-570.601-3 |title=Profiles In Leadership 1942–1992 |pages=86–95 |last1=Snyder |first1=Thomas |last2=Shaw |first2=Shelia |date=January 28, 1992 |publisher=[[Air Force Historical Research Agency]] |access-date=October 18, 2021 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130230530/https://archive.org/details/afhra-k-570.601-3 |archive-date=November 30, 2021 }}</ref> heading operations for the [[Berlin Airlift]] in 1948 in the face of a blockade by the Soviet Union and its satellite states that threatened to starve the civilian population of the Western occupation zones of Berlin. Under his direction, [[Douglas C-54 Skymaster]]s that could each carry 10 tons of cargo began supplying the city on July 1. By late 1948, the airlift was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day with 500 daily flights. The airlift continued for 11 months, with 213,000 flights operated by six countries bringing in 1.7 million tons of food and fuel to Berlin. Faced with the failure of its blockade, the Soviet Union relented and reopened land corridors to the West. Though LeMay is sometimes publicly credited with the success of the Berlin Airlift, it was, in fact, instigated by General [[Lucius D. Clay]] when Clay called LeMay about the problem. LeMay initially started flying supplies into Berlin, but then decided that it was a job for a logistics expert and he found that person in Lt. General [[William H. Tunner]],<ref>Cherny, Andrei, ''The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour'', Putnam Press, {{ISBN|978-0-399-15496-6}} (2008)</ref> who took over the operational aspects of the Berlin Airlift.