The ineffectiveness of such bombing, despite its destructive power, has been known for many years. At the end of WW II, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith led a large staff in a government report on the effectiveness of the Allies strategic bombing. In 2004, he summarized his conclusions from nearly 60 years before. Attacks on German arms factories âwere sadly uselessâ as âfighter aircraft production actually increased in early 1944 after major bombingâ due to factory and machinery relocation and determined management. The resulting death and destruction in German cities âhad no appreciable effect on war production and the war.â This lesson, he opined, was ignored when the United States initiated wars in Vietnam and Iraq.
