The
Vietnam Veterans Memorial is one of the most visited memorials in Washington
D.C. More than 4 Million people come each year to feel the names and see their
reflection on the mirror-like granite. Although the real name for the memorial
is The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it is called “The Wall” by most. Even though
the wall is extremely popular now, there was a lot of controversy surrounding
all aspects of it during its construction and the first few years after. Most
notably, there were objections to the design of the memorial, as well as the
designer. Thankfully, the objections didn’t halt the construction of the
memorial so the world can enjoy it today.
Building
a memorial to recognize the veterans of Vietnam was originally the idea of a
wounded veteran named Jan C. Scruggs. He and other veterans wanted a memorial
that recognized the veterans but stayed out of the politics of the war. Scruggs
founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) to fund the memorial, and
eventually 9 million dollars were raised for the construction of the memorial,
and all of the money came from private organizations and around 275,000 American
people. The VVMF set up a design competition for the memorial. They set 4
conditions on the designs: They had to “be reflective and contemplative in
character; harmonize with its surroundings, especially the neighboring national
memorials; contain the names of all who died or remain missing, and make no
political statement about the war.” By the end of the competition, almost 1500
people submitted designs. The VVMF decided to have 8 artists and designers pick
the design, so they spread out all of the entries at the Andrews Air Force Base
and labeled them with a number (1-1421) instead of a name. The entries took up
more than 35,000 square feet, and in a line, they would stretch 1.3 miles! The
8 judges unanimously picked design number 1,026 as the winner, which turned out
to be the design of a Yale student named Maya Ying Lin.
Here are some
numbers and facts on “The Wall”: The memorial was built from March 16 to November 1, 1982.
Each wall is 246.75 feet long and 10.1 feet tall at their tallest. Combined, the
walls have almost 500 feet of names! There are a total of 74 panels for the
names. They are 40 inches wide. 70 panels have names on it and 4 have yet to be
filled.
The aspects of Maya Lin’s design
angered many veterans. According to them, there were many problems with the
design. Maya Lin’s design called for black granite, which is very different
from all the other memorials in D.C. To many, black was the color of shame,
death, degradation, and that definitely didn’t sound heroic to them. The reason
Maya Lin picked the black granite is so that visitors could see their
reflection in the wall of names, not because it was shameful. Another problem
for some was that it was below ground, which apparently meant that the memorial
would be shameful because it was buried. Beyond the main design there were
issues too.
There are 58,272 names listed on
the memorial. They are listed chronologically, and then alphabetically, by
their date of death or date reported missing. There were many people that opposed
this idea. They thought that the names showed no significance in such a list.
They believed that the monument should tell what the soldier did. Some even
objected to the memorial only listing the deceased or missing. They believed it
should also recognize the living veterans.
There were a few veterans who were
very present in the opposition to the memorial, but there was no one more present
than Tom Carhart. Tom Carhart is a Vietnam veteran who believed so much that
everything was wrong with the memorial, he started and led the opposition to it.
In press conferences and letters, he called the memorial a “Black gash of shame”,
a “Slap in the face”, and said that it “Seemed opposite of a memorial to
recognize and honor veterans”. He even sent a letter to the VVMF calling Maya
Lin a “Gook” and saying that a communist selected the design. These statements
summarize the general attitude from some of the veterans opposed to the design.
James Webb, a senator and veteran, was a supporter of Tom Carhart’s ideas. He
believed the memorial should be raised above ground, the stone color changed to
white, and an American flag added. He also believed that the list of names had
to be “Modified or abandoned”. In
an effort to appease the opposition, a statue
of 3 men and a flag were added to the memorial, but were placed in the woods
not within sight of the memorial, which didn’t come close to stopping the
conflicts. These issues didn’t stop after the 1980s. A few female veterans had
issues with the statue having only men. They believed that the women should be
recognized too. To end tha
t conflict, a women’s memorial statue was added to
the memorial in 1993.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has
been surrounded by conflict and controversy, but it has proven to be a very
moving and successful design. Because it is such a memorable design, many
memorials follow it. The September 11
th memorial in New York and the
Flight 93 memorial (not quite finished yet) are 2 that are remarkably
similar.
They list the names in the same previously unpopular fashion as the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial.
I very much enjoyed this project
mostly because I remember being at the memorial and seeing the long list of
names and being incredibly moved. From researching the memorial, I found that
this is what it is supposed to do. I didn’t know that there was such a
controversy surrounding the memorial. While I was there, I saw no evidence of
this anger the memorial stirred up. There was one site in particular that helped
me very much was the History On Trial
on the Leigh University digital library. It was done by Edward J. Gallagher, a
professor of English and History at Leigh University. The website dealt with
all aspects of controversy surrounding the memorial and gave very many primary
sources. The memorial’s official website was also very helpful. I enjoyed doing
this project and all the others throughout this year, and I’m glad I got to
research this topic.
Sources:
