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in 1976, and (2) a long-term interpretive program bearing upon the historic fortifications at Fort Washington as, in the overall, illuminating historical American attitudes towards matters of national defense viewed from a military standpoint and, as well, from social, political, cultural, and economic points of view. 

On September 20, 1973, the Smithsonian and the Department of the Interior entered into a cooperative agreement for the operation of such programs at Fort Washington. The Advisory Board gave its endorsement to this cooperative agreement on November 28, 1973. 

The cooperative agreement of September 20, 1973, recognized that--for want of appropriate transportation facilities--Fort Washington might not prove suitable for the short-term Bicentennial program planned for 1976.  A subsequent study tending to confirm this, the National Park Service agreed in May 1974 to use of a portion of West Potomac Park instead of Fort Washington for the 1976 program. On November 6, 1974, however, the Smithsonian was forced to cancel this 1976 program in the face of substantial reductions made by the Congress in appropriations to the Institution for fiscal year 1975. The provisions of the September 20, 1973 agreement looking to a long-term cooperative program at Fort Washington, remain in force.