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[[stamp: S.D. RIPLEY DEC 28 1977]]

[[preprinted]]
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20560
[[/preprinted]]

23 December 1977

Mr. S. Dillon Ripley
Secretary
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560

Dear Dillon:

Although I had hoped to call the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board together in January 1978, I have decided to postpone doing so until the plan for the expanded exhibits in the Hall of the Armed Forces in the National Museum of History and Technology are more nearly completed. I feel that, in the meantime, I should advise you of happenings relating to Armed Forces historical endeavors in the Smithsonian since the Advisory Board's last meeting.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower Institute for Historical Research, established two years ago in the National Museum of History and Technology, has made fine progress under the immediate direction of Dr. Forrest C. Pogue. At the end of June 1977 two postdoctoral fellows, Colonel Alfred F. Hurley, USAF, and Dr. Warren B. Walsh, and a predoctoral fellow, Mr. Hans L. Paeffgen, completed a year of research under Dr. Pogue's supervision. Colonel Hurley, who is head of the History Department at the United States Air Force Academy, wrote on the early years of military aviation in the United States. Dr. Walsh, professor emeritus, Syracuse University, carried forward a comprehensive study of the impact of the Army War College on the careers of officers who attended it since World War Two. Mr. Paeffgen wrote on the Berlin Blockade.

In July 1977 the Eisenhower Institute gained as a postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gerald F. Linderman, associate professor of history at the University of Michigan and author of [[underlined]] The Mirror of War [[/underlined]], an outstanding study of American society and the Spanish-American War, published in 1974. Dr. Linderman is presently doing research on the