The papers of Ben Nicks consist of newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, and correspondence related to the controversy surrounding the planned exhibit of the Enola Gay at the National Air and Space Museum

Size: 5 linear inches (about 800 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection. Documents created by U. S. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Kamera Moore (2009).

Ben Nicks, a veteran of World War II and member of the Air Force Association, donated to the Truman Library a collection of materials documenting the Enola Gay Controversy. These materials were compiled by the Air Force Association, an organization that was active in opposing the original plans developed by the National Air and Space Museum for the Enola Gay exhibit.

The papers of Ben Nicks consist primarily of newspaper and magazine articles, press releases, and correspondence relating to the Enola Gay Controversy.

The Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of that event, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington planned to restore the aircraft and present it as part of an exhibit on the atomic bomb and the end of World War II. Detailed plans for the exhibit were released to the public in advance, and they sparked anger among veterans, members of Congress, and other critics, who accused the exhibit designers of portraying the use of the bomb as an immoral act and focusing too much on the suffering of Japanese victims. After an extended controversy and failed negotiations between the designers and their critics, the planned exhibit was cancelled in January 1995. The Enola Gay was exhibited at the museum the following summer without the text, photographs, or artifacts that had created the controversy.

Included in this collection are press articles commenting on the controversy, public statements by interested parties, and correspondence between veterans, historians, members of Congress, and officials of the National Air and Space Museum and its parent agency, the Smithsonian Institution. The materials were originally compiled by the Air Force Association, an organization that led the fight against the exhibit plan. Mr. Nicks collected the materials in his capacity as a member of the Air Force Association.

Related collections at the Truman Library include the Atomic Bomb Collection.

ENOLA GAY FILE, 1993-1996

• Enola Gay Controversy, 1995-1996
• "Enola Gay Coverage 1994"
• "Enola Gay Coverage 1995"
• “Revisionism Gone Wrong: Analysis of the Enola Gay Controversy, March 1994-September 1995”
• “The Enola Gay Debate: August 1993-May 1995”

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