September 1, 1950 – Air Force General Pontificates on How He Would Instruct Jesus

In the 1950’s, Air Force General Orvil Anderson, Commanding Officer at the U.S. Air War College, was probably the most vocal advocate of the U.S. launching a preventive war against the Soviet Union. (The Air War College, part of the U.S. Air Force’s Air University, is the senior professional military education school of the U.S. Air Force.) Anderson created a publicity nightmare, however, with an interview he gave journalists from an Alabama newspaper, in which he stated:

Give me the orders to do it and I can break up Russia’s five A-bomb nests in a week. And when I went up to Christ I think I could explain to him why I wanted to do it – now – before it’s too late. I think I could explain to him that I had saved civilization.”

The interview ran in the “Montgomery (Alabama) Advertizer” on September 1, 1950 and was reprinted all over the country. On September 2, the “New York Times” ran an article entitled: “General Removed Over War Speech.”

General Orvil Anderson