Very interesting read on the Enola Gay

[dharris]

Air Force Magazine article detailing the revisionist display planned around the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2004/April 2004/0404revision.aspx and the full pdf http://www.airforce-magazine.com/Si...umentFile/Historical Studies/0404enolagay.pdf

 

[av8erjm]

rewriting history

The rewriting of history is nothing new, it would be interesting how future generations learn about us today, are we really the evil capitalistic society some make us out to be, are we the colonialist country that we fought the Revolutionary War to be rid of. Only time will tell and the people with pen in hand will decide how good we are or how evil we are

 

[hawkeye52]

.....and the people with pen in hand will decide how good we are or how evil we are

A too-frequent variation of Stalin's "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything".

In our world, ideology trumps truth.

- H52

 

[stansdds]

History is often revised, "corrected", and sanitized to make it palatable to the masses. I think this is a terrible mistake and injustice to the masses. In altering history, the lessons of history are lost. Those lessons point out the mistakes that were made. Those who do not know (real) history are doomed to repeat history's mistakes.

 

[KellyB]

One wonders how the Rape of Nanking would have been portrayed.......

 

[dharris]

Pearl Harbor must have been a training exercise that went terribly wrong, so sollly

 

[Dain Arns]

I was happy when they finally, at least, displayed the forward half of the plane in the mid-90's. I went to see it. :salute:
Someday I need to head back and see her put back altogether.

 

[Terry]

They ought to give it to the CAF, at least their visitors (for the most part) understand real history.

 

[dharris]

Is the CAF the same as the old "Ghost Squadron" Still have the book by them the HIstory of the Ghost Squadron. I believe they were down in Texas

 

[Terry]

Is the CAF the same as the old "Ghost Squadron" Still have the book by them the HIstory of the Ghost Squadron. I believe they were down in Texas

It was the Confederate Air Force until they were beaten up by the media in the PC wars and ended up changing it to Commemorative Air Force.

 

[dharris]

Thanks I thought that might have been the case. Great group of people and wish them well. Next trip south I will try to look them up. Would love to see their aircraft. Oh yes, being a non- pc type Confederate air force was not derogatory to this northerener.

 

[TeaSea]

Take the time to read the whole article. It's an interesting documentation of how "revisionists" attempt to alter perceptions of events based not on what happened then, but rather on what is happening now.


The role of the Smithsonian is to present information, not push a particular interpretation of events. I'm proud to see that in this case the attempt to influence the display was foiled by folks who were actually a part of the event.

 

[dharris]

I read the entire article before finding this shorthend version from the magazine. This was shorter and not quite as detailed but all the facts are present here. I had a lot of respect for the Smithsonian before reading it but now not so sure.