In May 1995, General Sweeney appeared before a
United States Senate committee hearing arising out
of complaints by veterans groups that the proposed
text for an Enola Gay exhibition at the
Smithsonian's air museum in Washington portrayed
the Japanese as victims and the Americans as
vengeful.
General Sweeney told the senators: "I do not stand
here celebrating the use of nuclear weapons. Quite
the contrary. I hope that my mission is the last
such mission ever flown. We as a national should
abhor the existence of nuclear weapons. I
certainly do.
"But that does not mean that, back in August of
1945, given the events of the war and the
recalcitrance of our enemy, President Truman was
not obliged to use all the weapons at his disposal
to end the war. I agreed with Harry Truman then,
and I still do today."
-- 