The critical analysis of the decision to drop the atomic bomb in the proposed Enola Gay exhibit smeared the memory of the event for veterans in a negative way by challenging them to ask themselves, “Did America take the correct course of action to end the war?” Similarly, Sturken’s analysis of the Vietnam Memorial’s design interpretation and its comparison to other war monuments on page 52 also echoes the question if America made the right decisions in the war. Both cases demonstrate how war veterans, and the community, struggled with the decision of how to remember controversial actions in our nation’s history. In reading Marita Sturken’s discussion about the controversy of the Vietnam Memorial design in Tangled Memories, I could not help but think back to the uproar of the Smithsonian’s Enola Gay exhibit in the assigned readings a few weeks ago.
