This work sets suppositions against facts surrounding the United States' use of strategic bombing in World War II. Chapters cover the events leading up to the war; the start of the war; the seers and the planners; the airplanes, bombs, bombsights, and aircrews; the planes Germany used to defend itself against American planes; the five cities (Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki) that saw the heaviest bombing; and the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey of the damage done. The book probes the government's myth-building statements that supported America's view of itself as a uniquely humanitarian nation, and analyzes the role played by interservice rivalry - ""battleship admirals"" against ""bomber generals.