''Secure in tenure, they now serve up, in our museums and colleges, a constant diet of the same poison of anti-Americanisms on which they themselves were fed. Ultimate goal: Breed a generation of Americans who accept the Left's indictment of our country. For any nation to subsidize such assaults upon its history is to toy with suicide. But for Americans, whose history is so full of greatness and glory, it is criminal cowardice.”
-Pat Buchanan on the Enola Gay Exhibit
In the 1990s, the Culture Wars emerged on an unexpected stage: the Smithsonian Institute. In 1994, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum designed an exhibit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, refinishing the legendary Enola Gay B-52 bomber as the focal point of the exhibit. The ensuing debate over the contents and message of the exhibit aroused zealous and emotional responses from Right and Left-wing groups all of the United States. Whereas the museum historians wanted to discuss the various political motivations behind Truman’s decision, the physical destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the ensuing nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, right-wing American’s screamed that the great American motivation “to save thousands of American lives” was completely ignored by “revisionist historians.” Here, Richard Kohn explores the dimensions of the Enola Gay controversy and describes how the political culture wars affected the debate over historical interpretation. Kohn warns that in the Culture Wars, not even museums, educators, or historians are allowed to deviate from the traditional American narrative.
-Pat Buchanan on the Enola Gay Exhibit
In the 1990s, the Culture Wars emerged on an unexpected stage: the Smithsonian Institute. In 1994, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum designed an exhibit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, refinishing the legendary Enola Gay B-52 bomber as the focal point of the exhibit. The ensuing debate over the contents and message of the exhibit aroused zealous and emotional responses from Right and Left-wing groups all of the United States. Whereas the museum historians wanted to discuss the various political motivations behind Truman’s decision, the physical destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the ensuing nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, right-wing American’s screamed that the great American motivation “to save thousands of American lives” was completely ignored by “revisionist historians.” Here, Richard Kohn explores the dimensions of the Enola Gay controversy and describes how the political culture wars affected the debate over historical interpretation. Kohn warns that in the Culture Wars, not even museums, educators, or historians are allowed to deviate from the traditional American narrative.
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