The public relations campaign launched by the AFA against the Enola Gay exhibition, including a ferocious attack in the Air Force Magazine, is widely regarded as the reason that the reason the exhibition failed. They promoted the air force itself, as well as air power in general, and had become a powerful advocacy body for a strong national defines force. Kohn, “History and the Culture Wars,” 1036-1037.Ī non-profit association formed after World War II by Army Air Forces veterans., and comprising 180,000 members. Kohn, "History and the Culture Wars: The Case of the Smithsonian Institution's Enola Gay Exhibition," The Journal of American History 82, no. Rooney, The Enola Gay and the Smithsonian Institution (Jefferson: McFarland & Co, 2005), 169. Speakin g about the resulting controversy, Heyman placed a certain deg ree of blame on the disc onnect between academic scholarship and museum scholarship, saying, "scholarly work … translated into an exhibition in a museum, and in particular a national museum … is seen as an official statement and a national validation." Following the events of the Enola Gay exhibition, Heyman put several other Smithsonian projects on hold, including a National Air and Space Museum exhibit on air power in the Vietnam War. Martin Harwit, "The Enola Gay: A Nation's, and a Museum's, Dilemma." The Washington Post, Aug 7, 1994, c9.īecame the Secretary of the Smithsonian in 199 4, in the middle of the controversy, and who was ultimately responsible for can celling the exhibition in 1995. Kohn, "History and the Culture Wars,” 1038-1039. In a 1994 Washington Post article about the controversy, Harwit contended that it was their responsibility, “as a national museum predicated on an informed citizenry” to conduct “comprehensive and thoughtful discussion help us learn from history.” In 1996, Harwit published his account of events in An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay. This appointment saw in a shift in Smithsonian curatorship, away from celebratory and towards academic. Harwit was an astrophysicist and the first academic to hold this position his predecessors had been scientists, engineers, or aviators. He believed that the Smithsonian should “put on exhibits that make people uncomfortable.” Adams appointed Harwit, overlooking the application of a 4 star General to do so.
Robert McCormick Adams: The secretary of the Smithsonian from 1984 to 1994, who was in place when the Enola Gay controversy commenced. “About Us,” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum,, (accessed Mar 25, 2014). The institution’s ‘Mission Statement’ outlines that the museum “shall commemorate the national development of aviation and spaceflight, and will educate and inspire the nation.” National Air and Space Museum: The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC was opened on July 1, 1976. “About Us,” Smithsonian,, (accessed Mar 25, 2014). The complex is comprised of 19 museums and galleries, including the National Air and Space Museum. The world’s largest museum and research complex, founded in 1846.