Department of the Air
Force
Headquarters United States Air Force
Washington, D.C. 20330
23 August 1994
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
FROM: HQ USAF/HO
SUBJECT: Conversation with Dr. Martin Harwit
At 0920 this morning, I talked with Dr.
Martin Harwit, Director of the National Air and Space
Museum (NASM).
Dr. Harwit said he had followed through over the weekend on
the recommendation made by service historians (at the 16
August meeting with General Moorman) to closely look at
whether his curators had placed into the script the
recommendations of the military historians.
Harwit told me that his weekend review showed that, in fact,
the curators had failed to take these recommendations,
especially those of AF/HO. Dr. Harwit emphasized that he
had been “taken aback at how little had been done.”
There were “some word changes here and there,” Harwit
said, but clearly the curators had failed to follow
through. As he put it, this “had fallen through the
cracks.”
As an example, Harwit said that our recommendation that
President Roosevelt’s intense desire to see Japan bombed
be included in the script, was now being taken care of.
Finally, he mentioned that “logistics would not permit” the NASM
to implement Dr. Hallion’s concept for a two-stage
exhibit, but that potentially this could be done at
Dulles.
HERMAN S. WOLK
Senior Historian
Center for Air Force History
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