Round Four - Exhibit Allowed: March 1 to June 30, 1995

Do you want to do an exhibit to make veterans feel good, or do you want an exhibition that will lead our visitors to think about the consequences of the atomic bombing of Japan? Frankly, I don't think we can do both. -- Tom Crouch, NASM curator.

On the heels of Secretary Heyman's decision on January 30, 1995, to mount a less controversial exhibit, other museum officials raise questions about the chilling effect of self-censorship, and in March 1995 the Historians' Committee for Open Debate on Hiroshima calls for national teach-ins in protest. In April the Smithsonian and the University of Michigan host the conference on museums in a democratic society that Heyman promised when he cancelled "The Last Act." Martin Harwit, director of the National Air and Space Museum, resigns in May, just before two days of hearings begin in the Senate. In June American University hosts an exhibit including some of the material planned for the original Smithsonian exhibit, and the new, "simpler" Smithsonian exhibit opens on June 28.