You know, I read a lot of stuff, and I don't keep a stack of note cards at my elbow to refence every tidbit of information that I come across, so I can't quote you a source.
But my recollection is that I read that LeMay wanted to beat Russia to the draw as well as take care of the Cuban Problem.
Tallpine, you may very well be correct....
For a few years after WW2 there existed a time when WE had the BOMB and the Soviets didn't. In this period there was a discussion about whether we should put an end to the threat of communism via the USSR. The threat of communist expansion was understood even then. Recall the Soviets moved into eastern europe in WW2 and did not leave; even Patton wanted to shove 'em back but our political leaders said no.
Curtis LeMay may very well have been amongst those agitating to use the bomb on Moscow. It would be like him from what I recall, as he was a very aggressive fighter as witnessed by his Pacific Theater service. As I intimated in my last post, this aggressive stance may work very well in an actual war, but in a peacetime circumstance it may also prove to be the wrong type of action.
In the debate on how to deal with the communist threat, it was eventually determined by heads more sober that from a moral point of view we had no right to nuke the USSR pre-emptively, so, for better or worse, we chose a path of containment and mutual co-existance ... as well as the much vilified "mutual-assured-destruction" theory, AKA "M.A.D."