[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5447 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5447
To authorize the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland,
Nebraska, to be referred to as ``America's National Museum of the Cold
War'', and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 30, 2021
Mr. Fortenberry (for himself and Mr. Bacon) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To authorize the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland,
Nebraska, to be referred to as ``America's National Museum of the Cold
War'', and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``America's National Museum of the
Cold World War Act of 2021''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum, a
nonprofit corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986, was established ``to preserve the history
of Strategic Air Command, the Cold War, and related aerospace
artifacts and to inspire learning through imaginative,
innovative, and inspirational educational programs and
exhibits''.
(2) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is
responsible for the finances and management of the Strategic
Air Command and Aerospace Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.
(3) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is the
only large, professionally managed and staffed, and highly
visited museum in the United States that exists for the
exclusive purpose of interpreting, in totality and depth, the
American experience of the Cold War years (1946-1991), in all
theaters of conflict and containment, including all branches of
the Armed Forces and Intelligence Services.
(4) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum was
founded by community-invested people seeking to preserve the
unique history of Strategic Air Command and the influential
impact Offutt Air Force Base has had on the history of the
United States.
(5) From General Curtis LeMay to Strategic Nuclear
Deterrence, the Nuclear Triad, Looking Glass, and the fall of
the U.S.S.R., the Cold War flowed through the base located in
Bellevue, Nebraska.
(6) The current museum is a legacy of the history of Offutt
Air Force Base, where President George W. Bush landed on 9/11
as Commander-in-Chief.
(7) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is the
steward of--
(A) a significant collection of Cold War aircraft
on loan from the United States Air Force that includes,
among many others, one of two remaining XF-85 Goblins,
one of two remaining B1-A's, one of four remaining B-36
Peacemakers, the first operational B-52, both an SR-71
and U-2, a record-breaking B-58 Hustler, an EC-135
Looking Glass, an F-105 Thunderchief with a confirmed
MiG kill, and the very last RB-45C in existence;
(B) one of only three Royal Air Force Avro Vulcans
in the United States;
(C) the first Apollo Crew Service Module launched
into space;
(D) the personal effects of Francis Gary Powers,
Sr., on loan from his family;
(E) a large collection of personal and professional
items of General Curtis LeMay, CINCSAC;
(F) thousands of Cold War artifacts, including
missiles and missile firing and command controls;
(G) Space Race artifacts from Mercury through
Apollo; and
(H) Cold War surveillance systems.
(8) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is home
to the B-47 Association Collection and has access to the SR-71
Association Collection.
(9) Since the grand opening of the Strategic Air Command
and Aerospace Museum, the museum has attracted nearly 3,000,000
visitors from around the world, of which the largest percentage
are United States citizens from across the Nation.
(10) There is an urgent need to preserve the stories,
artifacts, and heroic achievements of the post-World War II era
that saw the emergence of the United States as the sole
superpower before the proliferation of nuclear weapons that led
to Strategic Nuclear Deterrence and Containment of Communism,
eventually ending in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
(11) The United States has a need to forever preserve the
knowledge and history of its most important post-World War II
responsibility of the 20th century, and to teach that history
to citizens, visitors, and school children for centuries to
come.
(12) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum has not
sought congressional funding for its facility and operations.
(13) Thousands of donors across the Nation have contributed
millions of dollars to help build this national institution,
including individuals and foundations.
(14) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum should
always be the Nation's museum of the American experience in the
Cold War years (1946-1991) where people go to learn about this
critical period and where the history of the Nation's
monumental post-World War II responsibility will be preserved
so that future generations may understand the role the United
States played in the preservation and advancement of democracy
and freedom in the second half of the 20th century.
(15) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum seeks
to educate a diverse group of audiences through its collection
of artifacts, photographs, letters, documents, and firsthand
personal accounts of the participants in the Cold War on the
home front during one of history's darkest hours.
(16) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is
devoted to the combat experience of the Nation's citizen
soldiers in all theaters of operation and to the heroic efforts
of the men and women domestically who supported the overt and
covert operations from the period beginning in 1946 and ending
in 1991.
(17) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
continues to add to and maintain one of the Nation's largest
personal history collections of the men and women who
participated in the Cold War.
(18) No other museum seeks to describe, in such totality
and depth, the span of time from the era of George F. Kennan to
the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the Cold War's influence on
pop culture, geopolitics, and its eventual influence on
contemporary history.
(19) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is
currently a 300,000-square-foot institution, including core
exhibitions on the Cold War, Strategic Air Command, and
Strategic Nuclear Deterrence.
(20) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is
planning an expansion that will include a Missileers Hall and a
large exhibition dedicated to the men and women that served in
the Cold War years and their families.
(21) The planned Comprehensive Facility Redevelopment Plan
will describe the role played by every State and territory
during the Cold War years, and the database of the Strategic
Air Command and Aerospace Museum's exhibition program will be
made available to the teachers and school children of every
State and territory.
(22) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is an
official Smithsonian affiliate institution with formal
agreement to borrow Smithsonian artifacts for future
exhibitions.
(23) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
actively engages with other institutions and museums on the
history of the Cold War including the National Cryptologic
Museum, the National Reconnaissance Center for Interpretation,
NASA Space Centers, and USAF Museum Program, among others.
(24) As the Strategic Air Command's motto was ``Peace is
our Profession'', and the heraldry of the organization includes
a Mailed Fist offering both Olive Branches and Thunderbolts,
with the former headquarters and two major bases within a 50-
mile radius.
(25) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
supports opportunities for ethical discussion of both nuclear
and anti-nuclear defense policy within the context of the Cold
War; as the literal and figurative epicenter or ``ground zero''
for an intercontinental thermonuclear exchange, the area
represents our national tradition of free speech that
simultaneously embraces both public support and protests.
(26) As the Cold War did not ``end'' but was ``won'', it is
proper and fitting that the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace
Museum, generally located near the geographical center of our
great Republic in the breadbasket of the Nation, represents the
cultural, regional, and strategic geopolitical intersections
relevant to the history of the Cold War.
(27) The 1992 stand-down of the Strategic Air Command
represented an awareness of the winning of the Cold War and
transition to a changed international leadership role.
(28) Academics and academic institutions have engaged the
Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum favorably for
research and advanced degree seminars regarding the Cuban
Missile Crisis, General Curtis E. LeMay, the evolution of
aerospace, and the Cold War, including--
(A) the United States Army School of Advanced
Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas;
(B) Sandia National Laboratories; and
(C) Dr. James Blight and Dr. Janet Lang of the
Balsillie School of International Affairs (policy
advisors to governmental administrations and the United
Nations).
(29) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
collaborates with other museums to share the current story of
STRATCOM, Minuteman Missileers, The Cold War, the Post-Cold War
nature of the Nation's thermonuclear force, and NASA's
technological and human developments that resulted in both
winning the Cold War and a sense of national pride in
achievements.
(30) The museum highlights that early on, the United States
Army Air Corps and then the United States Air Force developed a
culture of diversity, including--
(A) the Tuskegee Airmen (opened by the local
chapter president, with a national organization vice-
president and the last surviving Tuskegee Airman in the
community);
(B) Women in Aerospace (featuring historic and
contemporary accomplishments in the field);
(C) the Black Holes Smithsonian Exhibit (featuring
the work of seven student interns of color);
(D) Strategic Air Command leading the United States
Air Force as the first fully integrated military
branch; and
(E) education involvement with community partners
in underserved communities.
(31) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum is
actively collecting oral histories from the Cold War years
(1946-1991) to include all branches of service and civilians
(Alert Forces, Missileers, children of Vietnam POWs, Civil
Defense, Linebacker II Crew Members, etc.).
(32) The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum holds a
large collection of archival film and video from the Cold War
years (1946-1991) that include interviews with General Curtis
LeMay and other commanders in chief of the Strategic Air
Command, SAC training and promotional films, SAC Cold War
status reports, Civil Defense training, Missile Security, and
Cold War Propaganda.
(33) It is fitting and proper to refer to the Strategic Air
Command and Aerospace Museum as ``America's National Museum of
the Cold War''.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that the following goals are worthwhile
and should be sustained through America's National Museum of the Cold
War:
(1) Ensuring the continuing preservation, maintenance, and
interpretation of the artifacts, documents, images, and history
collected by the museum.
(2) Enhancing the knowledge of the American people of the
American experience during the Cold War years, in combat,
surveillance, intelligence, counter-intelligence and on the
home front.
(3) Providing and supporting a facility for the public
display of the artifacts, photographs, letters, documents, and
personal histories of the Cold War years (1946-1991).
(4) Providing and supporting a facility for the public
display of the artifacts, photographs, letters, documents, and
personal histories of the Concept and Theory of Cold Wars,
past, present, and future.
(5) Providing educational outreach programs for teachers
and students throughout the Nation.
(6) Encouraging, for educational purposes, the further
expansion of the exhibits on Technology, Engineering, and
Innovation that emerged from Cold War.
(7) Ensuring that all future generations understand the
magnitude of the American contribution to winning the Cold War,
the Strategic Air Command's mission of Strategic Nuclear
Deterrence, the sacrifices made to preserve freedom and
democracy, and the benefits of peace for all future generations
in the 21st century and beyond.
SEC. 4. AMERICA'S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE COLD WAR.
(a) In General.--The Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
located in Ashland, Nebraska, may be referred to as ``America's
National Museum of the Cold War''.
(b) Not a Unit of the National Park System.--The Strategic Air
Command and Aerospace Museum is not a unit of the National Park System,
and the authorization to refer to the museum as ``America's National
Museum of the Cold War'' under subsection (a) shall not be construed to
require or authorize Federal funds to be expended for any purpose
related to the museum.
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