Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 31, 1995 TAG: 9501310167
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Instead of a planned exhibit of the bomber the Enola Gay and the 50 years of tensions that arose from its mission on Aug. 6, 1945, the Smithsonian will simply display the famous bomber's fuselage and show a video of its crew.
Veterans' groups and many members of Congress have complained that the planned exhibit was biased, showing America as the aggressor in the Pacific war and putting too much stress on the enormous toll suffered by Japan. They also said the exhibit underestimated the number of American soldiers who would have perished if the bomb had not been dropped and an invasion of Japan had been necessary.
After a three-hour meeting of the Smithsonian's regents, I. Michael Heyman, the Smithsonian secretary, announced that the institution's governing body had concurred in his recommendation.
``In this important anniversary year, veterans and their families were expecting, and rightly so, that the nation would honor and commemorate their valor and sacrifice,'' he said. ``They were not looking for analysis, and, frankly, we did not give enough thought to the intense feelings such an analysis would evoke.''
William Detweiler, national commander of the 3.1 million-member American Legion, called Monday's development a bittersweet victory. He said the Smithsonian ``has been damaged, not by its critics, but by its own mismanagement and zeal for revisionist history.'' He urged that congressional hearings, called before Monday's action, go forward.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said President Clinton supported the decision. He said Clinton believes academic freedom was an issue in the debate, but ``nonetheless felt that some of the concerns expressed by veterans' groups and others had merit.''
Rep. Peter Blute, R-Mass., one of the planned exhibit's sharpest congressional critics, said the National Air and Space Museum, where the exhibit was to have opened in May, had planned to turn the display into ``a politically correct diatribe on the nuclear age.''
But Robert K. Musil, an official of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-war group, said Smithsonian officials ``caved in to political pressure.''
Heyman responded that ``obviously, some people are going to treat what we're doing as a response to pressure and objections.'' But, he said, if the institution made a mistake, it had an obligation to correct it.
by CNB