FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Politically Correct Curating at the Air and Space Museum

Arlington, VA, March 16, 1994 -- A planned exhibition by the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum devoted to the development of the atomic bomb and its use against the Japanese in World War II has been marginally improved but is still out of balance, according to a special report written by AIR FORCE Magazine Editor in Chief John Correll.

For the past two years, Correll writes, Air and Space Museum officials have been under fire from veterans groups who charge that the planned 1995 exhibition of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, is politically biased.

In the comprehensive special report, "The Smithsonian and the Enola Gay," Correll points to a trend of "politically correct curating" he traces to the tenure of archaeologist Robert McCormick Adams, who became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1984. Correll cites a Smithsonian document that says "the Institution plans to reinterpret permanent exhibitions of the nation's most unique and vital collections so that they appeal to, enfranchise, and inspire the broadest possible audiences."

In practice, that translates into problems already visible in a currently running World War I exhibition that attempts to debunk and discredit airpower by focusing graphically on death and destruction on the ground, Correll explains. "According to the curators, dangerous myths have been foisted on the world by zealots and romantics."

"The negative attitude toward airpower is pervasive, and remarkable in a museum devoted to air and space," adds Correll. In the case of the Enola Gay's mission, which Correll notes "was a grim one, hardly suitable for glamorization," the planned exhibit is skewed toward the Japanese victims of the bomb with little regard for the overall wartime context.

In a letter last fall to Dr. Martin Harwit, Director of the Air and Space Museum, Gen. Monroe Hatch, Jr. (USAF-Ret.), Air Force Association Executive Director, said the museum's plan "treats Japan and the United States as if their participation in the war were morally equivalent. If anything, incredibly, it gives the benefit of opinion to Japan, which was the aggressor."

After learning of the museum's plans, a group of B-29 veterans has collected 8,000 signatures on a petition asking the Smithsonian to either display the Enola Gay aircraft properly or turn it over to a museum that will do so.

According to congressional direction in 1961, cited in the report, "the Smithsonian Institution shall commemorate and display the contributions made by the military forces of the Nation toward creating, developing, and maintaining a free, peaceful and independent society and culture in the United States. The valor and sacrificial service of the men and women of the Armed Forces shall be portrayed as an inspiration to the present and future generations of America."

Unless changes are made, most Americans who view the Enola Gay exhibit will be treated to a rather curious interpretation of World War II by the Smithsonian's politically correct curators: "For most Americans, it was a war of vengeance. For most Japanese, it was a war to defend their unique culture against Western imperialism."

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You may contact the Air Force Association at 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, Virginia, 22209-1198, or by email: com@afa.org