why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?

By the time the compromise statue is dedicated, a move for the addition of a women's memorial is already underway. He also wanted to find a way to help them heal and suggested that the country build a national memorial as a symbol that the country cared about them. It was a whirlwind of events, and the press coverage was unbelievable. And Congress had declared a Vietnam Veterans Week for that April to honor those who had returned home. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rise, clashing with the French colonial rulers. Lin knew it was critical to maintain the simplicity of the design throughout the design development and construction process. The Veterans Administration hospital system was underfunded and ill-equipped to help Vietnam veterans deal with either their physical ailments or the psychological challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder. On April 27, 1979, four years after the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. (VVMF) was incorporated as a non-profit organization to establish a memorial to honor the veterans of the Vietnam War. Corruption and instability in South Vietnams government did not instill confidence in its people, or in the Americans working with it. Reagans 1981 inaugural speech exemplified the political rhetoric used by his administration to promote his vision to the American public. The first American fatality was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., killed June 8, 1956. 1. On the other hand, Congress had never declared war and so the president was limited in what he could do in Southeast Asia. Ibid. On June 11, 1963, an elderly Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down in the street in front of a pagoda in Saigon to protest Diems policies. The NVA suffered some 120,000 casualties. Woods remembered, I was like the kid at FAO Schwartz. By 1979, the country was beginning to have more positive feelings toward Vietnam veterans. The wall is the centerpiece of the memorial and is made up of two black granite walls, each 246 feet in length and 10 feet in height. Overview Military conscription, commonly known as "the draft," is one of the most complex topics related to the Vietnam War. ARVN divisions in the north were surrounded and routed. Architectural drawings and a one-page written summary, 1980 or 1981. As time progressed it caused more and more controversy in the United States. Once there was no more room for conflictthe memorials form, upon dedication, was no longer negotiablethe front in this culture war moved elsewhere. Omissions? What they did need, however, was an acceptable location for the Memorial and enough support to push the idea through various governmental committees and agencies. ), For three solid months, Spreiregen, Mosley, Woods, and Doubek planned the competition. As a first step, VVMF retained architect Paul Spreiregen to serve as the Professional Advisor for the competition. 4. It just resonated, he explained. 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. Most importantly, they needed to navigate the channels of government authorizations and approvals. With the site approved, VVMF scrambled to address the issues of what the Memorial would look like and who would design it. Also known as "America's Longest War," U.S. involvement in Vietnam War did not end until 1973. But if the challenges seemed insurmountable, no one expressed any fears. Heralding the end of one era and the commencement of a new one, Reagan famously proclaimed, Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem, further adding that: From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C. Like many veterans, Carhart read Lins design through the lens of his own experience: encountering an America that was at best indifferent and at worst outright hostile towards soldiers returning from Vietnam. 15. Though a congressional investigative committee the previous year had warned that America could find itself slipping into in a morass that would require more and more military participation in Vietnam, Johnson began a steady escalation of the war, hoping to bring it to a quick conclusion. North and South Vietnam were combined into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. But the veterans had real problems. Military personnel, including nurses, were warned not to wear their uniforms in the States. 12 (2006): 95. Compounding the pain was that societys ill treatment of the veterans extended to their families. 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. 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. It was becoming apparent that we had been able to be instruments to something far greater than anything we had ever imagined.. 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. It distributed an instructional booklet communicating its vision to all who registered for the competition. Though its location on federally owned property and its maintenance by the National Park Service might imply otherwise, the impetus to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial came entirely from the private sector and from one man in particular: Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran who had been wounded in the line of duty. Not only was Harts statue included at the memorial site, but a flagpole was added as well. In August of 1981, VVMF selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lins design. New York Close Up artist Dan Herschlein, and professor, Chad Laird, discuss the intersection of contemporary art, film and horror. 5/1981 - 3/1982. Buddhists, who comprised South Vietnams majority, claimed Diem, a Catholic, favored citizens of his religion in distributing aid. A cadre was drawn from those who went north; they were trained, equipped and sent back to the south to aid in organizing and guiding the insurgency. The design Lin envisioned listed the names chronologically by date of casualty. Within months after he recovered from his wounds and returned to his unit, the American public was learning the details of the events at My Lai. In July 1980, Congress passed a bill authorizing three acres on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to serve as the memorial site. After working alone for six months, Doubek was joined on the staff by Kathy Kielich, who served as the Office Manager throughout the project. 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. Hanoi re-activated the Viet Minh to conduct guerilla operations in the south, with the intent of destabilizing President Diems government. Its primary goal was to demoralize the North Vietnamese and diminish their manufacturing and transportation abilities. Just as the American people could be a part of building the Memorial through their contributions and support, they could also have an opportunity to participate in its design. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Ultimately, the VVMF Board agreed on a jury of the most experienced and prestigious artists and designers that could be found, since it took a mature eye to envision from two-dimensional renderings how a design would look when built. On November 11, 1984, the servicemen statue and a U.S. flag were formally added to the memorial, and the combined monument was placed under the control of the National Park Service. The mission of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) is to honor and preserve the legacy of service and educate all generations about the impact of the Vietnam War. Why was Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial initially controversial? Then, on March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese attacked across the 17th parallel with 14 divisions and additional individual regiments. The two sections were not unlike North and South in the United States prior to the Civil War; their people did not fully trust each other. He was in Vietnam, serving in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. It seemed unfair and inappropriate that there should be no recognition.. Vietnam, however, was divided at the 17th parallel. 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. Selecting a design that would meet the criteria demanded a jury that could grasp the significance of the Memorials purpose and understand the unique needs of Vietnam veterans, their families, and a country divided. 9. 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. Lins minimal plan was in sharp contrast to the traditional format for a memorial, which usually included figurative heroic sculpture. Antiwar protests continued across America and in many other countries, but on April 28, 1967, Gen. Westmoreland became the first battlefield commander ever to address a joint session of Congress in wartime, and Time magazine named him Man of the Year. The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The Gold Star Mothers is a group of mothers whose sons or daughters have died serving their country. A s memorials are objects of public commemoration, we demand a lot of them. VVMF met the prospective jurors and scrutinized their credentials. We had been friends for a long time, Mathias said. After three-and-a-half years of nonstop effort and work, with all that you have to do to accomplish what we did, it was beautiful. Working with the construction manager, GilbaneBuilding Company, the design team had to locate the appropriate type of granite: a flawless, reflective, deep ebony stone. 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. Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. During the Second World War, Vichy France could do little to protect its colony from Japanese occupation. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in Washington D.C., is a tribute to the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. The first cut was further reduced to 90 by midday Wednesday. 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 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. His reasoning was that a complete mess would make it tough to stop construction. The earliest of these battles was the controversy over Lins design. However, polls consistently showed the majority of Americans supported the war. 6. zThe Vietnam Wall Controversy, Round 3, October 1981January 1982, History on Trial, Lehigh University Digital Library, accessed April 21, 2011, https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r3/october/. The Vietnam War was an extremely long conflict, lasting from the sending of a group of advisors to aid South Vietnam on November 1, 1955, to the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Once Scruggs decided to build the memorial, the next step was to get some people behind him. The pilot of an F-8E Crusader did not see any ships in the area where the enemy was reported, and years later crew members said they never saw attacking craft. The text size is less than half an inch, which is unusual for monument design, but was selected to make the memorial read more like a book. Scruggs took a bold step in contacting Virginia Senator John Warner. Ms Lin arrived at a design solution to note those that were MIA with a symbol()that could be altered if the service member was found. 1. Instead they found bitterness and discontent and they were often disliked by the public. Casualties for the Republic of South Vietnam will never be adequately resolved. They were either ignored or shouted at and called vicious names. Because the U.S. failed to achieve a military victory and the Republic of South Vietnam was ultimately taken over by North Vietnam, the Vietnam experience became known as the only war America ever lost. It remains a very controversial topic that continues to affect political and military decisions today. She is still remembered fondly by veterans for the moving Memorial she designed for them. Were all the result of our upbringing. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. A few preliminary concepts were embraced. The ARVN bent but did not break. Some observers attributed this factor to Maya Lins presence on the jurying panel, which also included victims families, political appointees, curators, and other artists.17 It was even announced at one point that Walkers and Arads design resembled a sketch that Lin had made for the sort of memorial that might be placed at the site.18 Like Lins design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Reflecting Absence was criticized for failing to incorporate any representations of human figures, its minimal design interpreted as a rejection of codes of heroism.19 In a practical reenactment of the negotiation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the addition of a representational statue of three firefighters hoisting a flag at Ground Zero was proposed. A few of the most vocal opponents, including James Webb and H. Ross Perot, had previously been strong supporters of a memorial. 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. Lin and VVMF eventually selectedthe Cooper-Lecky Partnership as the architect-of-record, with Lin as the projects design consultant. 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. (Some in the North Vietnamese government thought the course of war in the south was unwise, but they were overruled.) On that January day, There was a big explosion, Scruggs recalled. 2) It applauded feminist efforts. By years end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. The Vietnam Wall, as it's commonly known, stands as a tribute to the war's veterans, who consider it a tangible symbol that the American people recognized and honored for their service. Some antiwar protestors blamed the men and women who served in Vietnam, taunting them and spitting on them when they came home. 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. They needed support, friendship and help. However, that posed a problem of how tolocate an individual name. The VC was effectively finished; it would not field more than 25,00040,000 troops at any time for the remainder of the war. Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. They needed to secure a plot of land, raise funds and public awareness, design the Memorial, coordinate construction, and organize the dedication ceremonies. Scruggs took two weeks off from his job at the Department of Labor to develop the idea further. There were four phases to the design competition spanning almost one year: planning and preparation; the launch; the design phase; the design evaluation and selection; the press conference and public presentation. ", 3: The Political Controversy, The winning designwas the work of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University. They did not like its minimalist design. 2. Many pushed friends in wheelchairs. On July 9, 1964, China had announced it would step in if the U.S. attacked North Vietnam, as China had done in the Korean War. It was very hurtful, Cupp recalled. Perhaps thats an appropriate design for those who would spit on us still. On January 21, 1970, Jan Scruggs was having his morning cup of coffee, but he was far from his kitchen table at home. The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentiallydirected the war from 1965 to 1968. 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. On August 2, two North Vietnamese torpedo boats in broad daylight engaged USS Maddox, which was gathering communications intelligence in the Gulf of Tonkin. It would help veterans heal. Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in the fall elections. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. Jan C. Scruggs, a wounded Vietnam War vet, studied what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return to. Many veterans, politicians, critics, and the general public read its refusal to explicitly glorify the war or frame the listed soldiers sacrifice in recognizably heroic terms as an ideological statement, proof of Linsand the memorialspurported anti-war position. (His son, Marine Corps lance corporal Richard Fitzgibbon III would be killed in action in Vietnam September 7, 1965. In the fall of 1980, VVMF announced the national design competition open to any U.S. citizen, who was over 18 years old. From the beginning, people have left tributes at its base. Johnson wanted to focus on instituting Great Society programs at home, but Vietnam was a snake he did not dare let go of. The public wanted to have a hand in helping to build the Memorial and in honoring the warrior, not the war. And that message got through to me.. Their initial timeline was aggressive, with an ultimate goal of dedicating the Memorial on Veterans Day 1982just a little more than 36 months away. They felt it was a slap in the face to those who had served because it did not contain traditional symbols honoring service, courage, and sacrifice. Ibid. Climbing Hamburger Hill 50 years after the Vietnam War's The Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought May 10-20, 1969, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). Im the News & Social Editor at HistoryNet and a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill, Spitfires, and Michigan football. He organized the advisors and volunteers into task groups: public relations, financial management, fund raising, legislation, site selection, and design/construction. There is also disharmony between the nay-saying wall and the unequivocally proud flag [] And nothing has happened to make Maya Lins creation look less like what it suggests to some veterans and some non-combatant citizens: an open grave.'9. In 1973 a third Vietnam war begana continuation, actuallybetween North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. 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. Both the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) and the VC used torture, to extract information or to cowl opposition. Mathias and Warner continued to rally support and ferry the legislation. When I meet Vietnam veterans who stop me to say thank you for creating the Memorial, I always want to say: thank you, for the service and sacrifices that all of you have made in service to your country, she added. 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. Sturken, 321. Both Scruggss and the VVMFs statements clearly conveyed that the memorial the veterans sought was to be an apolitical tabula rasa that would neither contribute to nor comment upon the unresolved controversies surrounding the war. As VVMF focused on fundraising, Sens. Joe Biden's slogan that it was time "to end the forever war" in Afghanistan was called imbecilic by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. 3) It provoked antiwar sentiment. In addition to the accounts of its creation, sev- The administration was caught by surprise, however, when Diem was murdered during the coup, which was led by General Duong Van Minh. In less than two weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the norths defenses. A tabula rasa upon which individuals could project their individual, personal experiences of the war was what the VVMF desired and, as historian Marita Sturken and others have observed, a tabula rasa was what they got. This would be a war without a front or a rear; it would involve full-scale combat units and individuals carrying out terrorist activities such as the Brink Hotel bombing. When the winning Vietnam Veterans Memorial design was dedicated on November 13, 1982, a storm of controversy followed. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 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. After listening for a while, Brigadier General George Price, a retired veteran of Korea and Vietnam, stood in quiet rage and said, I am sick and tired of calling black a color of shame. General Price, one of Americas highest-ranking black officers lived with and advised the 1st Vietnamese Infantry Division. But the war news was hopeful. In this sense, it was a complex ideological battle. 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. I was dumbfounded that we had succeeded at doing this. By years end, 2,573 individuals and teams had registered almost 3,800 people in total. At the time, well-managed open design competitions were common in Europe, but not in the United States. He made an impassioned plea for funding to his guests, members of the defense industry. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. He cited 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. Mathias and Warner continually stressed that their objective was to provide the country with a symbol for reconciliation. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was dedicated in 1982. American intelligence knew an attack was coming, though the Army had downplayed a New York Times report of large communist troop movements heading south. My background was relatively modest, he said. Based on a program the British had employed successfully against insurgents in Malaya, it didnt work in Vietnam. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. The women soldiers the nurses suffered too. 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). American helicopters rescued members of its embassy and flew some South Vietnamese to safety, but most were left behind. Larry Century, a young inventor from Cleveland, Ohio,was selected to serve as a consultant to Binswanger Glass Company in Memphis, Tennessee, which was awarded the contract for inscribing the names. 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. 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 South Vietnamese Army was showing improvement, winning 37 of their last 45 major engagements. The memorial consists of three parts: the Three Servicemen Statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. The battle was suddenly over.. No government funds would be necessary. . When the 18-year-old Scruggs volunteered to enlist in the Army in 1968, debate surrounding Vietnam was escalating. They werent nice. Charles Mac Mathias, a Navy veteran of World War II, had been opposed to the war in Vietnam, but he had always respected those who served in it. They were unwrapped, number coded, photographed for the record, and prepared for display. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laoswhich had been part of the French colonyreceived their independence. In a February 27, 1968, broadcast he summed up what he had found during his return trip to the war zone. and was so hurt by the controversy . The Memorials walls point to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, thus bringing the Memorial into the historical context of our country.