why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?

As Michael Clark points out in the essay, Remembering Vietnam, by the late 1960s, Hollywood and the mass media seized on this aspect of the veteran experience, creating variations of a fictionalized veteran who threatened at every moment to bring the war home with him in the form of flashbacks that turned firecrackers into artillery and passersby into the enemy.10 In Clarks analysis, these depictions of veterans served, for nonmilitary American citizens, as a way to launder the violence of the war by relegating it to some other place: Southeast Asia, and the [veterans] psychotic unconscious.11 Such representations enabled film viewers to reframe their experiences of the contemporaneous violence occurring at home, on American soil. A different feeling prevailed among many within the U.S. government. Unveiled on Veterans Day, November 11, 1984, [1] on the National Mall, it is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial [2] commemorating the Vietnam War. In the nine months since he'd been in-country, Scruggs had already seen a lot of action and had been wounded in a battle near Xuan Loc. I heard that those present agreed to double their contributions after Taylor completed her remarks, Scruggs said. The At 21 and still an undergraduate, Linconceived her design as creating a park within a park a quiet protected place unto itself, yet harmonious with the overall plan of Constitution Gardens. 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. However, the media was not the only entity invested in the veterans compelling predicament. However, that posed a problem of how tolocate an individual name. The peasants resented being forced from their ancestral lands, and consolidating them gave the VC better targets. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: from Controversy to Healing The timing and scale of the offensive caught ARVN, the U.S. and other SEATO troops by surprise, however. Most, like the Lincoln Memorial, were competitions between select designers. Overview Military conscription, commonly known as "the draft," is one of the most complex topics related to the Vietnam War. By now, we are so accustomed to its visual rhetoricthe polished black granite, the lists of names, the horizontal positioningthat to think of these components as anything but standard practice takes an act of real imagination. As the commentaries of Wolfe, the New Republic, and the National Review demonstrate, the media was happy to add fuel to the fire of the veterans indignation through editorial contributions and obsessive coverage of the debate. On the other side, the same thing was occurring, with even more inflated numbersvastly more. Such images pack tremendous emotional punch but often lack context. 8. In a February 27, 1968, broadcast he summed up what he had found during his return trip to the war zone. Marinesnear Van Truong, from the VC point of view. The designs were received and processed in a large warehouse east of Washington. The effects of U.S. involvement, the impact of an individual's participation, political decisions and the politics of decision-making are still felt. The jury included: architects Pietro Belluschi and Harry Weese; landscape architects Hideo Sasaki and Garrett Eckbo; sculptors Costantino Nivola, Richard Hunt, and James Rosati; and Grady Clay, a journalist and editor of Landscape Architecture magazine. And that message got through to me.. The Selective Service System during the Vietnam war was highly controversial, especially because early in the war draftees came disproportionately from poor, working-class, rural, and minority populations. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? The list of tasks to achieve such a goal seemed endless. I am always incredibly moved and heartened, especially when a veteran tells me that The Wall has helped them in some wayit could not mean more to me. By years end, 2,573 individuals and teams had registered almost 3,800 people in total. Warner, who had served as Secretary of the Navy during the war, was himself a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. 2. With such an overwhelming response to the competition, logistics became an issue. The American Legion, VFW, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), AMVETS, and Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) made sure their members knew that veterans were going to be honored and welcomed that week on the National Mall. Veterans needed this, and so did the nation. Woods remembered, I was like the kid at FAO Schwartz. In 1972 a poll determined he was the most trusted man in America.. An ad hoc group of veterans had scheduled a meeting to try to use Vietnam Veterans Week to generate publicity for veterans need, and Scruggs thought that would be a good time to announce his plans. The Vietnam Wall Controversy, Round 4, 1982, History on Trial, Lehigh University Digital Library, accessed April 21, 2011, https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r4/1982/. Both sides were fighting a war of attrition, so communist commanders sent Hanoi battle reports that often were pure fantasy. In August of 1981, VVMF selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lins design. Maya Lin worked closely with Cooper-Lecky on all aesthetic aspects of the design. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. It was a whirlwind of events, and the press coverage was unbelievable. The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentiallydirected the war from 1965 to 1968. This message of personal responsibility, in contrast to governance by an elite group on behalf of individuals, became a hallmark of the Reagan administration. Memorials are built to give context and, possibly, meaning to suffering that is otherwise incomprehensible. That bothered him. to the memorial, as well as the rituals that take place there and what role the memorial may be playing in the construction of a his-tory of the Vietnam War.8 Beyond the academic discourse, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has also in-spired a considerable popular literature. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. It was becoming apparent that we had been able to be instruments to something far greater than anything we had ever imagined.. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. Private Funding No government funds were used to build the memorial, only public land. They serve as testaments to lives lost, as repositories of grief, and to facilitate processes of mourning. Color should mean nothing now., Sideys piece continued: At the end of five hours and much shouting, General Mike Davison, retired, who led the Cambodian incursion in 1970, proposed a compromise: add the figure of a soldier in front of the long granite walls that will bear the 57,709 names of those who died or are missing and the tribute to all who served. President Johnson, watching the broadcast, said, If weve lost Walter Cronkite, weve lost the country. In May, Johnson announced he would not run for reelection. 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. Laos, South Vietnam: 850,000 In 1973 a "third" Vietnam war begana continuation, actuallybetween North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. The Three Soldiers, 198284. ever and endured a raging national controversy over the avant-garde . (His son, Marine Corps lance corporal Richard Fitzgibbon III would be killed in action in Vietnam September 7, 1965. In previous war, progress and setbacks could be shown on maps; large enemy units could be engaged and destroyed. Washington, D.C. As memorials are objects of public commemoration, we demand a lot of them. Lin and VVMF eventually selectedthe Cooper-Lecky Partnership as the architect-of-record, with Lin as the projects design consultant. Ultimately, the Commission of Fine Arts, which had the final say in the matter, overruled Lins objections. Together, we can make sure our heroes will get the reverence they deserve and the stories and sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten. Prior war memorials had depicted brave soldiers riding horses, shooting guns, or at some other moment of triumphfor example, the massive Marine Corps War Memorial with its enormous bronze figures raising the American flag over Iwo Jima. The purpose of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was to honor all who had served, with a special tribute their names engraved for those who did not return. The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. Joe Biden's slogan that it was time "to end the forever war" in Afghanistan was called imbecilic by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. The plan, however, was eventually scrapped, once the initial haggling over the racial identity of the firefighters gave way to accusations of political correctness on the part of the memorials planners.20. 1 (Spring 1987): 10. By June 1977, Scruggs was attending graduate school at American University in Washington, D.C. and had embarked on a research study exploring the social and psychological consequences of Vietnam military duties. Waiting meant they would never reach their dedication deadline of November 11, 1982. We do not seek to make any statement about the correctness of the war, Scruggs said. One of the lingering legacies of the Vietnam War is the widespread belief in America that the media cost us the war in Vietnam. Images such as the burning monk; South Vietnamese Police Chief Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan about to pull the trigger of a pistol pointed at the head of a bound VC prisoner; of a naked young girl running crying down a road after an American napalm strike that left her badly burnedthese images and others became seared into the minds of Americans on the homefront, and in those of civilians in allied nations such as Australia. He found that returning veterans were finding it hard to trust people. The names are inscribed in the chronological order of their dates of casualty, showing the war as a series of individual human sacrifices and giving each name a special place in history. while the veterans were primarily concerned with the ability of the design to offer emotional comfort to veterans and the families of the dead, either in terms of forgiveness or honor.7. The first cut was further reduced to 90 by midday Wednesday. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) advised that was not the caseAmerica had a strong military presence in the Pacific that would serve as a deterrent. Sturken, 125. 170,000220,000 military Others questioned the intent of the Memorial. Two nights later, Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy were on patrol in the Gulf and reported they were under attack. With the winning design in hand, Spreiregen had less than 24 hours to craft an explanation of the decisionand the designthat would be suitable for presentation to VVMF. The fact that such nongovernmental entities as the New York Times, CNN, and the Max Protetch Gallery took it upon themselves to solicit designs for both the new World Trade Center buildings and for suitable memorials to the attacks indicates the extent to which the American public writ large was attuned to the sites future. The greatest challenge VVMF faced, said Doubek, was to put together a functioning organization with people who didnt know one another, people who were very young and didnt have a lot of experience. It was World War II and her family lived in Nam Dinh, an industrial city and military target on the north coast of Vietnam. They complained about the walls being black. How were Vietnam veterans treated when they returned from the war? The Vietnam War was a divisive and politically polemic war. In July 1959, North Vietnams leaders passed an ordinance called for continued socialist revolution in the north and a simultaneous revolution in South Vietnam. Spreiregen, a graduate of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, was a Fulbright Scholar who had served as the director of urban design programs at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) from 1962-66 and as the first director of architecture programs at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1966-70. I am tired of hearing it called such by you. It echoed the theme that regardless of how anyone felt about the war itself, everyone cared about honoring the men and women who had served and those who had ultimately lost their lives. But the war news was hopeful. Ibid. Editors note: This essay was originally published on Art21.org in November 2011. Marita Sturken, The Aesthetics of Absence: Rebuilding Ground Zero, American Ethnologist 31, no. We expect them to do the work of history writing, to draw single comprehensible narratives out of a Gorgons nest of individual, often contradictory, experiences. By 1979, the country was beginning to have more positive feelings toward Vietnam veterans. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. Could it heal the chasm within society, promote closure, show gratitude to those who served, comfort those in grief, and remind future generations of the toll wrought by war? 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. Today, The Wall continues to be the most-visited memorial on the National Mall, attracting more than five million people each year. The first American fatality was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., killed June 8, 1956. With the seed money from several defense industry donors, especially Grumman Aerospace, VVMF launched its first large-scale direct mail campaign to reach out to the public. By early 1982, VVMF asked Warner to bring together both sides for a closed-door session to hammer out the issues. 4: The Artistic Controversy, 3/1982-11/1985 >>>>> 1988. It would help veterans heal. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. When I was attending law school, Vietnam veterans were an anomaly among the young single professional set of Washington, so it was something you didnt mention. remembered Doubek. Memory Foundations (planned design for former site of World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York). Instead they found bitterness and discontent and they were often disliked by the public. Crowd at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982. But I was always impressed with the example my parents set.. The Three Soldiers. He also found that those veterans whose units experienced high casualty rates were experiencing higher divorce rates and a greater frequency of combat-related dreams. His successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, inherited the Vietnam situation. 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. 4. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also called The Wall, national monument in Washington, D.C., honouring members of the U.S. armed forces who served and died in the Vietnam War (1955-75). The Vietnam Wall Controversy - About - Overview - Lehigh University In an article in the Washington Post, writer Tom Wolfe defined the debate over the inclusion of Harts figurative memorial as a story of art experts and the Vietnam veteransand of how the veterans asked for a war memorial and wound up with an enormous pit they now refer to as a tribute to Jane Fonda. His political party, the Democrats, had been blamed for China falling to communism; withdrawing from Vietnam could hurt them in the 1964 elections. The series of events began on Wednesday, November 10, 1982, and culminated with a service at the National Cathedral on Sunday, November14. You may have been tear-choked as you touched or watched others touch "the Wall" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the most visited war memorial in our nation's capital. There were so many people helping to get the legislation [passed], remembered Healy. Like the war itself, this memorialization was highly controversial, but the site has become the most frequently visited memorial in Washington, D.C., drawing over 4 million visitors annually. With permit in hand, Doubek instructedto commence construction immediately. In the Shadow of the Washington Monument. He was an excellent partner and fundraiser. Mathias knew the legislative process. Perhaps Lins centralitytwenty years after the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorialto the debate over Arads and Walkers design was inevitable, given her presence on the design competitions selection committee as well as her legacy as the definitive memorial builder of the late twentieth century. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Karal Ann Marling and Robert Silberman, The Statue Near the Wall: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Art of Remembering, Smithsonian Studies in American Art 1, no. Its primary goal was to demoralize the North Vietnamese and diminish their manufacturing and transportation abilities. In this sense, it was a complex ideological battle. News footage showed the fighting in Saigon and Hue. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. Its army lacked reserves, while the NVA was growing. But, say those opposed, the men represent the women, the men represent all soldiers . Better armed than ever before, thanks to increased aid from the Soviet Union, they employed tanks for the first time. How did people react to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Spreiregen recommended having a multi-disciplinary panel: two architects, two landscape architects, two sculptors, and one generalist with extensive knowledge about art, architecture, and design. Lin knew it was critical to maintain the simplicity of the design throughout the design development and construction process. Its mirror-like surface reflects the images of the surrounding trees, lawns and monuments. Mathias and Warner continued to rally support and ferry the legislation. Although publicly the war in the south was described as a civil war within South Vietnam, it was guided, equipped and reinforced by the communist leadership in Hanoi. Peter Walker and Michael Arad. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954-1975. 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. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display, History of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. It was the reminder that the men who died in Vietnam all had faces and names, as well as friends and families who loved them dearly. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation. Black is not a color of shame. I just kept thinking to myself how quiet it was, and yet there was an immense feeling of community. Jan C. Scruggs, a wounded Vietnam War vet, studied what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return to. Although Americas war in Vietnam failed to salvage the Republic of South Vietnam, it bought time in which neighboring countries improved their economies and defensive capabilities, and it may have discouraged greater communist activism in places like the Philippines. Initially the (Senators) staff was split, recalled Monica Healy, a long-time Mathias aide, on whether Mathias should take the lead and support the efforts to build the Memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in Washington D.C., is a tribute to the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. With the jury selected, the next task was to announce and promote the competition. As a first step, VVMF retained architect Paul Spreiregen to serve as the Professional Advisor for the competition. I was dumbfounded that we had succeeded at doing this. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. Some antiwar protestors blamed the men and women who served in Vietnam, taunting them and spitting on them when they came home. It is a V-shaped polished black granite wall that runs 246 feet long. Paul Haagas spouse, Heather Sturt Haaga, soon came forward to lend her experience in fund raising. On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar demonstration took place in America, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Support for the war eroded further. 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. The controversial Vietnam War was long and drawn out, fought in a humid terrain alien to American soldiers. The ARVN bent but did not break. 5. This presented the new MACV commander (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam), General William C. Westmoreland with a thorny challenge: how to show the American people progress was being made. 12. North and South Vietnam were combined into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. movements and weakening the morale of Americans fighting in Vietnam. The memorial consists of three parts: the Three Servicemen Statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Together with Spreiregen, he composed a report based on these thoughtful comments. The Three Soldiers - Wikipedia The names of the eight women who died in Vietnam are included on the list of over 58,000 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design Lin envisioned listed the names chronologically by date of casualty. 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. Were all the result of our upbringing. You may have been tear-choked as you touched or watched others touch "the Wall" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the most visited war memorial in our nation's capital. I ran over to see a truck on fire and a dozen of my friends dying. They had been unloading an ammunition truck when the explosion occurred. Ironically, the leadership of North Vietnam came to a similar conclusion: they had to inflict enough casualties on Americans to end support for the war on the U.S. homefront and force a withdrawal before the U.S. could build up sufficient numbers of men and material to defeat them. The debate over Minimalism, applied to Lins design, provided new terms through which to resurrect Americas internal debate over the validity of the Vietnam War. On November 8, 1979, VVMF held a press conference in which Mathias, Warner, and several others announced the introduction of legislation to grant two acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. For Woods, the growing coalition was a prime example of its not what you know, its who you know. These people, though a small group, were able to reach out to their networks and their extensive contacts to recruit the type of expertise and support required for such a mammoth initiative. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built without government funds. The families of service members who were missing in action originally wanted their names listed separately. By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. And none of them discussed their own personal feelings or political views regarding the war. A memorial made perfect sense to him. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Please leave evidence I will report anything other than this 1 See answer Advertisement lheduardomarques Frustrated, Nixon ordered the big bombersB-52sto strike Hanoi, beginning December 16 (Operation LINEBACKER). The whole week was extremely emotional, Becky Scruggs remembered. It was decided that VVMF would hold a design competition, open to any American citizen over 18 years of age. The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 19541975. Maya Lin was practically a kid when her design was selected to become the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Frederick Hart. His reasoning was that a complete mess would make it tough to stop construction. Their military experience meant they had contacts far and wide, at all levels of all professions, within government and the private sector. Significant funding cuts to programs that had been instigated in the 1960s under Lyndon Johnsons Great Society domestic agenda followed, in addition to a major attack on union power. It would be a way to honor the veterans and to help themand the countryheal. Vietnam, however, was divided at the 17th parallel. The Vietnam War: Facts & Info About the Most Controversial - HistoryNet Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. In addition to the accounts of its creation, sev- 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. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Even white troops were beginning to protest. The U.S. suffered over 47,000 killed in action plus another 11,000 non-combat deaths; over 150,000 were wounded and 10,000 missing. Furthermore, he explicitly framed his interpretation of the memorial in (perceived) opposition to an explicitly artistic perspective. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation.. On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. Scruggs would never forget the awful scene. Corruption and instability in South Vietnams government did not instill confidence in its people, or in the Americans working with it. But how and where could all of the submissions be displayed? The Making of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - JSTOR Daily As noted above, a number of sources warned U.S. leaders against becoming embroiled in Southeast Asia. Veterans frequently found themselves denying their time in Vietnam, never mentioning their service to new friends and acquaintances for fear of the reactions it might elicit. The war became the central rallying point of a burgeoning youth counterculture, and the coming years would see many such demonstrations, dividing generations and families.. On Christmas Eve, in Saigon, a VC set off an explosive at the American officers billet in the old Brink Hotel, killing two Americans and 51 South Vietnamese. Associated Press correspondent Malcolm Mal Browne photographed him sitting quietly in the lotus position as the flames consumed him. On January 30, 1968, during Vietnams celebration of Tet, the lunar new year, VC and NVA units launched a massive attack in every province of South Vietnam. North Vietnam Vietnam Veterans Memorial - National Park Service Ibid.

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