America's Air Force: Strong, Indispensable, and Ready for the Twenty-First Century.

摘要

After examining every aspect of the American effort in World War II, President Harry S. Truman and his military leadership team were convinced that the nation needed an independent military service to operate exclusively in the air domain. The legendary exploits of the US Army Air Forces in World War II demonstrated that airpower, through gaining and sustaining air superiority and providing close air support to ground forces, was a sine qua non for success in major land operations. Moreover, the Army Air Forces achievements established that air forces, through providing airlift, reconnaissance-based intelligence, and strategic bombing, could create important effects that were largely independent of tactical support and, in fact, could affect all levels of conflict, oftentimes simultaneously. These Army Air Forces contributions that were so valuable to the Allied victory are the very ones that today, seven decades after the end of World War II, still provide a shared identity and sense of purpose for Airmen, and make the US Air Force critical to the national defense.