Smithsonian Cancels Enola Gay Exhibit AFA Praises Congressional Allies

Air Force Magazine - March 1995, Pg. 82

After a year of calling for a revised script that would add historical balance and context to the politically biased Enola Gay exhibit planned for May 1995, on January 20, the Air Force Association blasted the National Air and Space Museum for backtracking on previously agreed-to script changes.

In a nationally disseminated news release, AFA Executive Director Monroe W. Hatch, Jr., stated, "We do not believe that a fair and balanced presentation of the Enola Gay is possible with the present director curator team in charge. We conclude, therefore, that it is time to cancel this exhibit."

A day earlier, Rep. Peter Blute (RMA) and Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) called for the resignation of Air and Space Museum Director Martin Harwit. A few days later, 79 members of the House of Representatives joined them in cosigning a letter to Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, I Michael Heyman. On January 30, Secretary Heyman announced that the Enola Gay exhibit would be replaced by a simple display of the airplane's fuselage, along with video recollections of the crew.

Much of the credit for this development belongs to the veterans who first raised the issue and to individual members of AFA who wrote to their congressmen. Support on Capitol Hill has been tremendous, and AFA is grateful to all members of the House and Senate who took an active interest in this matter, both in public and private.

For its part, AFA published the initial and definitive articles on this subject in AIR FORCE Magazine and launched a national communications campaign that reached hundreds of newspapers, dozens of regional radio stations, and all the major television networks. The facts spoke for themselves, and the reaction against the Air and Space Museum was overwhelming.

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