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