During this period, the US military increasingly deployed napalm, and, to use the words of Harry TrumanвЂ™s Secretary of War Robert Patterson in referring to incendiary weapons, вЂњ this вЂdudвЂ™ of World War II became one of the most potent weapons in the Pacific Operations.вЂќ 2 Yet, this вЂpopularityвЂ™ rapidly faded during and after the Vietnam War. Napalm experienced during the first twenty years following its creation strong support in the eyes of prominent American military leaders (Curtis LeMay being the most famous figure among them), and relative indifference by the US domestic population. Interestingly, the personal trajectory of Fieser - from вЂњpraiseвЂќ to вЂњshameвЂќ - echoes the trajectory of the perceptions attached to napalm throughout the second half of the twentieth century. He probably did not expect either that, after having been widely lauded and awarded for this invention for more than 25 years, he would have to rewrite his official biography so that the word вЂњnapalmвЂќ ceased to appear in it. When Harvard scientist Louis Fieser created a new type of incendiary weapon which he called napalm on 4 July 1942, he probably did not expect that he would become the вЂfatherвЂ™ of a weapon at the very core of American bombing within a decade. The article demonstrates that analysis of the weapons deployed for вЂstrategic bombingвЂ™ enriches the historiography вЂ“ and the understanding - of the doctrine and practice of strategic bombing itself. It demonstrates that the massive use of this weapon, from its creation in 1942 to the Vietnam War, is at the core of a shift in the doctrine and practice of American strategic bombing. This article highlights these issues through the analysis of napalm utilization by the US military. Yet, these means are crucial to understand three decisive aspects of the doctrine and practice of strategic bombing: (1) how they have been defined (2) how they have changed and (3) how they have been perceived and used by different actors (militaries, international institutions and public opinion) over time (3). If the doctrine of strategic bombing has been the object of much attention in the military history and international relations literature (Biddle 2002, Pape 2011), few studies have focused on the means deployed to achieve the bombings. This is a revised version of a paper originally prepared for the conference organized by Mass Violence & Resistance, Civilians at Stake: Mass Violence in Asia and Europe from 1931 to the Present, Paris, 16-18 December 2015.

Virtual villagers origins 2 explosives