"Black Snow: Curtis Lemay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb" by James M. Scott

[FalkeEins]

..it is/was useful that the argument can be made that the destruction wrought may ultimately have saved American and Japanese lives that would have been lost in an invasion of Japan’s main islands. Bomber Harris didn't have the luxury of that argument over Dresden. LeMay's 'star' only really started to wane when he talked of bombing Vietnam back to the stone age.