We do not memorialize bus accidents, which by nature are contextless, meaningless. Its detractors perceived it as a monument to defeat, one that spoke more directly to a nations guilt than to the honor of the war dead and the veterans, describing it as the black gash of shame, the degrading ditch, and a wailing wall for draft dodgers and New Lefters of the future.4 Responding to its lack of narrative content, Senator James Webb called it nihilistic. Interestingly (given their opposing political positions), both the National Review and the New Republic equated the list of names with a police report on a traffic accident. It also offered a way to exorcise lingering bitterness and anxieties that the war had propagated. Although thousands of people were there, It was so very quiet, Wheeler recalled. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. Vietnam, however, was divided at the 17th parallel. The memorial should be conciliatory, transcending the tragedy of the war.3. Mathias set up a meeting so he could learn more. The photo of the South Vietnamese police chief, for example, cannot by itself explain he had just seen the dead body of a close friend minutes before; even Eddie Adams, the photojournalist who snapped the photo felt it unfairly maligned Lt. Col. Loan. Working with the construction manager, GilbaneBuilding Company, the design team had to locate the appropriate type of granite: a flawless, reflective, deep ebony stone. The earliest of these battles was the controversy over Lins design. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. The South Vietnamese Army was showing improvement, winning 37 of their last 45 major engagements. Here are four facts about the provocative memorial. The Vietnam Women's Memorial was established to honor the women who risked their lives to serve their country. The memorial consists of three parts: the Three Servicemen Statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. They were also the most collegial people, who would deliberate intensely but never argue or posture, Spreiregen remembered. Because he possessed great knowledge of history, he understood the extensive healing process required after war. American drawdown continued, with only 43,000 personnel left in-country by mid-August. The bronze sculpture, depicting three women caring for an injured soldier, recognized the work of the more than 10,000 women who served in Vietnam. The communist takeover of China and subsequent war in Korea (1950-53) against North Korean and Chinese troops had focused a great deal of attention on Southeast Asia as a place to take a strong stand against the spread of communism. As a senior at Yale University, Lin entered a nationwide competition sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and her design was selected from the more than 1,400 submissions that were received. In large part, this was accomplished through a series of conflicts waged at the level of culture. But, say those opposed, the men represent the women, the men represent all soldiers . We had to constantly find the most effective next step to take and be sure not to get waylaid by tangents. The group started to hold regular planning meetings. Consequently, by the time of the memorials design and construction, veterans had built up a significant amount of moral outrage and found their outlet in the controversy over the memorial. Mathias had grown increasingly concerned about how veterans had been treated on their return. One example, cited in Grab Their Belts to Fight Them: The Viet Congs Big-Unit War Against the U.S., 19651966, by Warren Wilkins, is a description of the first major battle between the VC and American ForcesU.S. He made an impassioned plea for funding to his guests, members of the defense industry. Earlier, Wild Bill Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II forerunner of the CIA, had also advised that the U.S. had nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming involved in what was then French Indochina. They were also keenly aware that the legislation made the Memorials design subject to the approval of the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), and the Secretary of the Interior. On Saturday, a grand parade took place where veterans marched joyously out of sync, some hand-in-hand or with their arms draped around one another, holding banners, flags, and signs. His successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, inherited the Vietnam situation. One day in October 1969, fifteen members of the Americal Division wore black armbands while they were on patrol, the symbol antiwar protestors wore in the states. Shortly after the dedication of the land for the memorial, the VVMF announced an open competition for designs for the memorial itself. They are a treasure of design insight and included many prescient thoughts as to how the Memorial would likely be experienced, Spreiregen wrote of Clays notes. China conquered the northern part of modern Vietnam in 111 BC and retained control until 938 AD; it continued to exert some control over the Vietnamese until 1885. And if they were bitter, who could blame them? Although the United States won the war in a numerical sense, having far less casualties than North Vietnam, the U.S. did not accomplish what they had set out to do. Its primary goal was to demoralize the North Vietnamese and diminish their manufacturing and transportation abilities. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laoswhich had been part of the French colonyreceived their independence. Ho Chi Minh led a communist government in the north (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) with its capital at Hanoi, and a new Republic of South Vietnam was established under President Ngo Dinh Diem, with its capital at Saigon. Hidden in a hole in the ground, with no means of access for those Vietnam veterans who are condemned to spend the rest of their days in a wheelchair. Ruling out an invasion of North Vietnam assured that a purely military victory would not be possible, a fact that was at odds with many Americans expectations for the war. The hope is that the creation of the Memorial will begin a healing process, Doubek wrote. South Korea: 50,000 Medals, toys, flowers, photographsanything and everything is left at The Wall as family and friends seek to remember their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. By 1979, the country was beginning to have more positive feelings toward Vietnam veterans. 19. (An American medic treated him during World War II, probably saving his life.) In 2009 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the site. The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentiallydirected the war from 1965 to 1968. To treat the Vietnam dead like the victims of some monstrous traffic accident is more than a disservice to history; it is a disservice to the memory of the 57,000.5. 13. Marita Sturken, The Aesthetics of Absence: Rebuilding Ground Zero, American Ethnologist 31, no. As soon as the design was chosen,the next step was to consider the all-important details of getting it built. Lin moved to Washington and immediately became part of an internal struggle for control of the design. For example, veteran Tom Carhart famously commented: I dont care about artistic perceptions, I dont care about the rationalizations that abound. 1. After the dedication, Scruggs and Wheeler walked together along the upper side of the Memorial ground, near Constitution Avenue. Lin became a design consultant to the architect of record. By the time of World War II, a number of groups sought Vietnamese independence but as Vo Nguyen Giapwho would build Vietnams postWWII armyexpressed it, the communists were the best organized and most action-oriented of these groups. They were real guys. Most, like the Lincoln Memorial, were competitions between select designers. It was a whirlwind of events, and the press coverage was unbelievable. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. Frustrated, Nixon ordered the big bombersB-52sto strike Hanoi, beginning December 16 (Operation LINEBACKER). 4 (Summer 1996): 685. It was very hurtful, Cupp recalled. Similarly, casualty totals among the VC and NVA and the number of dead and wounded civilians in North Vietnam cannot be determined exactly. Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. The U.S., which had been gradually exerting influence after the departure of the French government, backed Diem in order to limit the area under communist control. They complained about the walls being black. Carhart equated artists and their defenders with individuals who engaged in acts of aggression against returned soldiers, and who were thus correlated with the entirety of the anti-war movement. But the slogan has proved remarkably effective and points to a deep truth: forever is a very short time in democratic politics, writes Philip Collins. A memorial made perfect sense to him. In August of 1981, VVMF selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lins design. The ceasefire allowed Nixon to declare peace with honor, but no provisions existed for enforcing the terms of the accords. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (eBook) - Julia Hargrove 2002-03-01 The Vietnam conflict was one of the most controversial engagements in the history of the United States. Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs, the individual to first pitch the idea of a memorial, used $2,800 of his own money to begin the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in 1979, according to History. Dark tourism, also known as black tourism, thanatourism or grief tourism, is tourism that is associated with death or tragedy. Usually it refers to the period when the United States and other members of the SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) joined the forces with the Republic of South Vietnam to contest communist forces, comprised of South Vietnamese guerrillas and regular-force units, generally known as Viet Cong (VC), and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). 18. Hanoi offered to restart peace talks, yet remained intransigent in its demands. The added component of military security made the location even more attractive, since it would ensure no interference with the designs or the judging. More than 150,000 veterans, families, loved ones and friends made plans to attend. The walls are inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 men and women . Instead, the memorial became a dividing line between factions both real and imagined. An author, teacher, and lecturer, Spreiregen had written the authoritative book on design competitions. On April 30, 1980, the Senate approved legislation authorizing the Memorial, followed by approval in the House on May 20, 1980. Johnson wanted to focus on instituting Great Society programs at home, but Vietnam was a snake he did not dare let go of. An air war was the most that could be done north of the 17th parallel, because the use of ground troops had been ruled out. They were unwrapped, number coded, photographed for the record, and prepared for display. In July 1959, North Vietnams leaders passed an ordinance called for continued socialist revolution in the north and a simultaneous revolution in South Vietnam. I remember The Washington Post had pages and pages of stories in the A section. Vietnam veterans were, at long last, receiving the recognition they deserved. The reputation of the jurors was important to attract the best designers and to minimize second guessing by the Federal approval bodies. My background was relatively modest, he said. How were Vietnam veterans treated when they returned from the war? Earlier, in March 1968, the Americal Division had been involved in what became known as the My Lai Massacre, in which over 100 men, women and children were killed. As Scruggs analyzed the concept of collective psychological states, he realized that, just as veterans needed psychological healing, so too did the nation. As Sturken notes in her essay, The Aesthetics of Absence: Rebuilding Ground Zero, the impetus to create a memorial at the site of the Twin Towers was almost instantaneousby the next day, even as the names and number of dead remained unknown, there was discussion of a memorial.13 Discussions about what to do with the site addressed two twin concerns: the redevelopment of what had been both a hub of commercial activity and an integral part of a broader residential neighborhoodlower Manhattanand the memorialization of the loss of lives that occurred at the site. 17. Maya Lin worked closely with Cooper-Lecky on all aesthetic aspects of the design. Wheeler recruited others to help, starting with a group of professional men, all Vietnam or Vietnam-era veterans: George Sandy Mayo, Arthur Mosley, John Morrison, Paul Haaga, Bill Marr, John Woods and certified public accountant Bob Frank, who agreed to become VVMFs treasurer. She is still remembered fondly by veterans for the moving Memorial she designed for them. Lins minimal plan was in sharp contrast to the traditional format for a memorial, which usually included figurative heroic sculpture. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. As they forged a partnership with Mathias and his staff, VVMF also set out to establish other key relationships. On April 30, their tanks entered Saigon. When the veterans began to return home they were greeted not with cheers and shouts of joy that soldiers met when they came home from WW2. I am tired of hearing it called such by you. The photo was published worldwide under the title The Ultimate Protest, raising (or in some cases reinforcing) doubts about the government that the democratic United States was supporting. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. Scruggs was raised in a rural Maryland town between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. His mother was a waitress; his father a milkman. For the millions of people who visit each year, Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall sends a chilling message about war, heroism, and sacrifice. It was becoming apparent that we had been able to be instruments to something far greater than anything we had ever imagined.. Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial.