April 2, 2025

The Smithsonian Institution is a national treasure. It is a repository of knowledge and a site of learning. The Smithsonian museums and educational programs reach Americans and international visitors from around the world, telling stories of outer space and ordinary spaces, histories of hope and struggle, and histories of collaborative achievement.

President Trump’s Executive Order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” is an attack on the greatness of that national treasure. It demands a state-sanctified history, one that erases the hard struggles and achievements of many people in the United States by insisting on a simplistic, false, and sanitized account of our rich and complex history. This censoring of history does justice to no one.

As SHAFR President, I support the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the many other individuals and organizations that have spoken out against this attack on the basic responsibility of history and historians. SHAFR members across the country, and SHAFR as an organization, have long had working relationships with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service. We know the important responsibility they carry. Our members join them every day in doing the hard work of researching, writing, and teaching the full complexity of our history, in fostering critical thinking, and in promoting a multi-layered understanding of the role of US in the world. This is the kind of history our country needs. It is vision we should be willing to fight for.

Melani McAlister
President
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations