vietnamwall

     The idea of a Vietnam veteran's memorial came from Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran. In 1969 at the age of 19, he was sent to Vietnam and assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. After witnessing much bloodshed with over half of his company killed, he returned to America wounded with shrapnel still in his body a year later. Scruggs went home to Bowie, Maryland where he worked and later attended a community college. He then transferred to American University where he got his master's degree in psychology and counseling. It was at AU where that he first thought of the idea of a memorial to the Vietnam veterans. Although America wanted to forget the war, it was still on Scruggs mind. "A memorial to the men and women who lost their lives in Vietnam would help the country remember. And maybe, Scruggs thought, a memorial might help lessen the war bitterness that still divided the Americans" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 28). However, his idea would still remain a dream because he had no experience or money to start a memorial.

      In 1979, Scruggs was now married and working for the U.S. Department of Labor. He saw a movie "The Deer Hunter" which was about Americans in the Vietnam War. This affected him greatly as he had flashbacks of his own experiences in war and could not sleep. "The morning after than night of terrible memories, Scruggs told his wife that he was going to build a memorial to all of the men and women who had been killed in Vietnam. 'All their names will be there,' he said" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 29). He did not know how he was going to start it, but he was determined. Many people said his idea would not work because the memorial would be too emotional for the public and that it would take a long time to build. However Scruggs did not get discouraged. "He didn't intend to build a memorial to the Vietnam War but rather to the men and women who fought and died in the war. There was a big difference" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 29). In addition, he did not want government money, but instead to be funded by contributions from the American public.

      At a Vietnam veterans meeting in Washington, Scruggs shared his idea of the memorial, but got the same reaction that the plan would not work. However, after the meeting, Robert Doubek, a Washington lawyer and a former Air Force officer in Vietnam, told Scruggs he supported the memorial. Doubek advised Scruggs to "form a nonprofit organization, a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that could develop plans for the memorial and receive tax-exempt contributions" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 30). To pay and register the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Scruggs sold a small piece of land he owned. On May 28, 1979, he held his first press conference to publicize the memorial, asking for contributions and support. Veterans and families of the lost soldiers sent letters of support concerning the memorial to Scruggs. However after a month, the Memorial Fund only received $144.50.

      Despite the lack of money, Scruggs got an important phone call from John Wheeler, a Washington attorney and a Vietnam Veteran, who volunteered to help fundraise. Wheeler knew influential business people, the military, government, and the legal profession. Out of these meetings came capable volunteers for the organizational, publicity, and fund-raising tasks of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and valuable supporters in the corporate and professional worlds. In addition Scruggs got the support of Congress with the help of Charles McC. Mathias Jr., senior senator from Maryland. "In the end 26 senators cosponsored a bill authorizing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund to build a memorial on public grounds in Washington, D.C. The bill was also heavily cosponsored in the House of Representatives, and it passed both houses of Congress unanimously. On July 1, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the bill, and it became effective as Public Law 96-297.

      The new law stated the memorial would be built on the Mall in the area called Constitutional Gardens, near the Lincoln Memorial. It was to be 'in honor and recognition of the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States who served in the Vietnam War.' Although there were no restrictions on the content or design of the memorial, it had to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the National Capital Planning Commission. Construction had to begin within five years but could not be started until enough money was collected to complete it. In addition, "the law specified that 'neither the United States nor the District of Columbia shall be put to any expense in the establishment of the memorial'" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 33). The goal was to have the memorial built in two years for Veterans Day 1982.

      To raise money a national sponsoring committee was formed. This included First Lady Rosalyn Carter, former President Ford, and General William Westmoreland (commander of the U.S. forces in Vietnam during the war). Letters signed by Bob Hope were sent to citizens' homes asking for donations. In addition organizations such as Gold Star Mothers and Veterans of Foreign Wars publicized the need for funding. H. Ross Perot and Senator John Warner made big contributions. However, it was local citizens across America making small donations that contributed most of the money.
The design of the memorial was now in question. To solve this problem, a national design competition open to all Americans was held in October 1980. Guidelines concerning the memorial included: the memorial could not make a political statement about the war; it must contain the names of all persons killed or missing in action in the war; it must be in harmony with its location on the Mall. The winner would receive $20,000 and their design as the memorial. "H. Ross Perot contributed $160,000 necessary to hold the competition, and a panel of distinguished architects, landscape architects, sculptors, and design specialists was chosen to decide the winner" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 36).

      On the deadline of March 31, 1981, 1,421 registrants submitted their designs, which were anonymously displayed in an airplane hangar. The jury spent one week reviewing the designs. On May 1, the experts chose Entry Number 1,026 as the winner. The design was said to be 'the finest and most appropriate,' 'superbly harmonious,' and 'simple and forthright.' "It is uniquely horizontal, entering the earth rather than piercing the sky" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 38).

      The winner was Maya Ying Lin, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Yale University majoring in architecture, not a famous architect or sculptor. Maya was born in Athens, Ohio and raised surrounded by art and literature. Her father, Henry Huan Lin, was a ceramist and the dean of fine arts at Ohio University in Athens. Her mother, Julia C. Lin, was a poet and professor of Oriental and English literature. Both her parents left China when communism took over and moved to the U.S. in the 1940s.

     Maya had spent her junior year studying abroad in Europe. She was especially interested in cemetery architecture where the graveyards are used as parks and living gardens due to the lack of space. The war memorial in France, which honors those who died in the Somme offensive during World War I in 1916, also inspired her. However, it was Maya's professor of the funerary architecture class, Andrus Burr, who saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition and had his students design a memorial as a course assignment. Maya visited Constitutional Gardens where she designed the memorial in her mind. She then returned to Yale where she made a clay model. Professor Burr liked it and encouraged her to enter it into the competition. A month after submission, she received a call from Washington telling her she had won.

     The design of the memorial brought about new feelings. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the National Capital Planning Commission, and the Commission of Fine Arts all approved of the design. However, many veterans opposed, including H. Ross Perot. They criticized the black granite as "a black gash of shame" and thought it was too abstract. They wanted human figures symbolizing the years of sacrifice and service. Maya was hurt. She admitted she did not know much about the Vietnam War because she was a baby when it took place. "To her. The memorial she had designed honored those who has died in Vietnam, but it was also symbolic of the sacrifice and sorrow that is a nation's burden in any war" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 45). She had chosen black granite because of "its superb reflective quality; it would give back to those who visited the memorial images of themselves as well as reflections of trees, sky, and earth…sunlight would have made white marble so dazzling bright that the names could not have been read. As for it being built aboveground. The effect of comfort and security Maya Lin wanted would have been lost entirely; also, an aboveground structure would detract from the Lincoln Memorial, only six hundred feet away" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 48).

     On January 27 1982, a long meeting took place between Jan Scruggs and other members of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and some of the most powerful critics of Maya Lin's design. After four hours, General Michael Davison, adviser to the Memorial Fund and former commandant of West Point, suggested to make a statue of a serviceman as part of the memorial. This compromise, with the addition of an American flag, allowed the construction of the memorial to proceed. The statue and flag would be placed at a distance separate from the wall. Frederick Hart, a Washington sculptor, was hired to create the bronze statue. Although it was not sculpted and cast in time for the dedication on Veterans Day, it would be added later. With the plans for the memorial finally at an agreement, James Watt, Secretary of the Interior, approved of the decision and signed the constitution permit allowing the memorial to be built on the Mall.

     Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial were held on March 26, 1982. "Shovels were laid out on the ground, one for every state, one for every veterans organization at the ceremonies" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 52). In addition, many emotional speeches were given as the building of the memorial began. The Memorial Fund hired an architectural firm to draft plans for the wall, a contractor was hired to prepare the land and build the memorial, and a landscape architect was hired to make sure the memorial was is harmony with the rest of the park. Maya took a leave of absence from Yale to be a consultant on the project. She was not an architect, but she knew what the memorial and setting should look like. Dirt was moved to form a sloping V in Constitutional Gardens and 140 concrete pilings were put into the ground to form a solid base for the wall. Granite for the wall was quarried in southern India. The thick slabs of granite were shipped to Barre, Vermont where it was sliced into panels and polished until it shined. In total the east and west sides of the memorial would make up 70 panels. The panels varied in height from 10 feet in the center to 8 inches on the ends. After the panels were cut to proper size, they were shipped to Memphis, Tennessee. It was here that the names of the Vietnam Veterans who lost their lives or were missing were etched into stone. The Defense Department furnished a computer tape of Vietnam War causalities, and photographic stencils of the names, arranged not alphabetically but by date of death, were placed on the panels. The names were then sandblasted onto the panels by hand.

      Maya was specific about the order in which the names should be inscribed. The names should begin and end in the center where the two halves of the wall meet. The name of the first person killed in the Vietnam War (1959) should be inscribed at the top of the east side, and the names would then follow chronologically to end of the east side, in order of fate of death or date declared missing. The chronological listing would then begin again at the end of the west side, continuing in order of date of death until the names of the last person killed (1975) was inscribed at the bottom of the west side. In this way Maya believed, "'the war's beginning and end meet; the war is 'complete' coming full circle…'" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 55). Each name is preceded on the west side of the wall or followed on the east side of the wall by a diamond or cross. A diamond means that the serviceman or servicewoman's death has been confirmed. The cross means that the person was missing at the end of the war and is still unaccounted for. The names of 1,300 missing servicemen are still on the wall. If a death is confirmed, the cross will be changed to a diamond. If a missing man returns alive, a circle (a symbol of life) will be inscribed around the cross.

     The Memorial Fund organized a Salute to Vietnam Veterans that lasted from November 10 through November 14, including the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on November 13. Over 150,000 Vietnam veterans from all over the country came to Washington. The 5-day program began with a candlelight vigil in Washington Cathedral, honoring the Americans who fought in the Vietnam War. Volunteers read the names of the dead and missing, as well as religious prayers. "The reading of 57,939 names (the number of known dead and missing at that time) began Wednesday morning at ten o'clock and continued without interruption until midnight on Friday" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 60). Other activities throughout the week included military unit reunions, organizations' open house receptions, and a salute program by Jimmy Stewart and Wayne Newton.

     On the morning of Saturday, November 13, a Tribute to Vietnam Veterans Parade was held in Washington. Veterans, military units, and marching bands were greeted by the public cheering. This was probably one of the first times the American public had acknowledged the Vietnam War in a positive light. At two thirty in the afternoon, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated, while Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler sat on stage proud of their accomplishment. The memorial was built in less than three-and-a-half years from the time Scruggs had his press conference to the time the last granite panel was erected. This was a record in national memorial building.

     Two years later on Veterans Day 1984, the bronze statue of three servicemen were installed and dedicated. Each of the three figures suggests different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Each is carrying weapons and dressed according to battle. "They wear the uniform and carry the equipment of war; they are young. The contrast between the innocence and of their youth and the weapons of war underscores the poignancy of their sacrifice. There is about them the physical contact and sense of unity that bespeaks the bonds of love and sacrifice that is the natures of men at war.... Their strength and their vulnerability are both evident," said Hart. The flag flies from a 60-foot staff. The base contains the emblems of the five services. The sculpture and flag form an entrance plaza. President Reagan attended the ceremony, accepting the completed memorial for the nation.

     On Memorial Day 1986, names of 110 servicemembers who died during the Vietnam War were added to the walls of the Vietnams Veterans Memorial. "These names previously had been left off the Memorial because these people died outside the combat zone designated by presidential decree to include Vietnam, Cambodia, and adjacent waters" (Smithsonian Institution, Reflections On The Wall, p. 146). Today the total is at 58, 226 (http://www.nps.gov/vive/memorial/memorial.htm). The names of eight women (seven army nurses and one air force nurse) are also included on the wall. In addition, the names of about 38 military persons who did not die in the war were engraved on the wall. This happened because of clerical errors in the list of fatalities provided by the Defense Department. The names cannot be removed without damaging the memorial, but they have been dropped from the directory of names at the memorial.

     On November 11, 1993 the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated to honor the service of 265,000 women in Vietnam brought about by the efforts of Diane Carlson Evans, a former army nurse in Vietnam. Designed by Glenna Goodacre, the sculpture depicts three uniformed women with a wounded soldier. While one nurse comforts the soldier, another kneels in thought or prayer. The third looks to the sky for help from a medic helicopter, or possibly from a higher power. "The women's war was different from the men's - instead of exploding in the jungle, it blew up in the mind. Surrounded by death, the nurses had to shut down emotionally. They could not show their feelings to the soldiers they were trying to heal" (http://www.nps.gov/vive/memorial/women.htm).

     The Vietnam Wall has become a sacred place where the people leave cherished momentos. "Objects began to arrive before the Wall was completed, and by 1993 the collection included well over 250,000 objects of every shape, size, and description" (Hass, Carried To The Wall, p. 23). The National park Service's Museum Archeological Regional Storage Facility (MARS) in Lanham, Maryland is where material belonging to forty National Park Service locations is stored, including memorabilia left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. "About a third of all the items left at the memorial are military…identification tags, clothes, ribbons, medals. A little less than one-third of the items are written material. The large remaining miscellaneous category is made up of toys, books, phonograph records, many things that had value and meaning only for the person who put them there and to the names on the wall that they had belonged to…" (Ashabranner, Always to Remember, p. 66). The park rangers collect everything but organic material. Each item is logged with the date, time of day, and number of the memorial panel where the item was placed. The item is then given an inventory number. MARS is not open to the public and none of the written material may be read or copied. David Guynes and Duery Felton have been the curators since 1985. They provide information about the items left but do not want to publicize of solicit the offering of more things. "They worry that if people read that is it acceptable to leave offerings and read that all the offerings will be saved forever, people will be more likely to brings things for the collection rather than for the dead or themselves" (Hass, Carried To The Wall, p. 25). In 1992, an exhibit of the memorabilia collected from the Wall was displayed at the National Museum of American History. "Not long after the tremendously popular exhibit opened, people began to leave things with attached notes granting the Park Service permission to display the artifacts at the Smithsonian" (Hass, Carried To The Wall, p. 25).

     Not only was the Wall able to touch those who came to see it in Washington, but it sought to reach out to those who could not go to Washington as well. On Veterans Day 1996, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund designed a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to travel to communities throughout the U.S. "The traveling exhibit, known as The Wall That Heals, allows the many thousands of veterans who have been unable to cope with the prospect of "facing The Wall" to find the strength and courage to do so within their own communities, thus allowing the healing process to begin" (http://www.vvmf.org/). In addition, the Traveling Museum and Information Center provide more information about the Vietnam War for visitors. "The Museum chronicles the Vietnam War era and the unique healing power of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, while the Information Center serves as a venue for people to learn about friends and loved ones lost in the war" (http://www.vvmf.org/). The Traveling Wall is still on Tour, scheduled through December 2, 2001.