It was such a great cause, and they were bound and determined to make it happen.. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. 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. It will be a better memorial if its not entirely understood at first. Every major engagement between U.S. forces and VC or NVA was an American victory, and the casualty (body count) ratio always showed significantly larger casualties for the communist forces than for the Americans. The VC were often supplemented by units of the Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN), more often called simply the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) by those fighting against it. . The senior staffers were against it. Please leave evidence I will report anything other than this 1 See answer Advertisement lheduardomarques Then, in October 1980, veteran and lawyer Tom Carhart, also a former supporter, testified before the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) against the design, saying that One needs no artistic education to see this design for what it is, a black trench that scars the Mall. By years end, 2,573 individuals and teams had registered almost 3,800 people in total. He has written that he was prepared for a 25-year war; he realized he did not have to achieve military victory; he only had to avoid losing. Frustrated, Nixon ordered the big bombersB-52sto strike Hanoi, beginning December 16 (Operation LINEBACKER). Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. Initially, however, homefront support for the war effort grew, but by March Americans, perceiving no change in strategy that would bring the war to a conclusion, became increasingly disillusioned. Dana Joy Helwick explains how, and why, she uses contemporary artists as role models in her classroom. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. American troops had won every major battle they fought, and General Nguyen Van Thieu had come to power in South Vietnam in September; he would remain in office until 1975, bringing a new measure of stability to the government, though he could not end its endemic corruption. The first fundraising letter was signed by Bob Hope. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Maya Lin worked closely with Cooper-Lecky on all aesthetic aspects of the design. He was in Vietnam, serving in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. The South Vietnamese Army was showing improvement, winning 37 of their last 45 major engagements. 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. The jurors began by touring the site and then returned to Hangar #3 at Andrews to view each of the 1,421 designs individually. By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. The Salute opened with a vigil Wednesday morning at the National Cathedral, where all of the nearly 58,000 names on The Wall were read by volunteers around the clock, day and night, through midnight Friday. In a February 27, 1968, broadcast he summed up what he had found during his return trip to the war zone. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Rip it apart.. 12. 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. In this sense, it was a complex ideological battle. With the introduction of legislation, the VVMF leaders realized that it was time to transition from a volunteer committee and to open a staffed office. A different feeling prevailed among many within the U.S. government. They werent nice. He was an excellent partner and fundraiser. Mathias knew the legislative process. The VC was effectively finished; it would not field more than 25,00040,000 troops at any time for the remainder of the war. Vietnam has a long history of being ruled by foreign powers, and this led many Vietnamese to see the United States involvement in their country as neo-colonialism. On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar demonstration took place in America, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. 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. They serve as testaments to lives lost, as repositories of grief, and to facilitate processes of mourning. 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. Not only was Harts statue included at the memorial site, but a flagpole was added as well. First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1981), Ronald Wilson Reagan, Miller Center For Public Affairs, University of Virginia, accessed April 21, 2011, https://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3407. They did not like the idea that it was below ground level. It was surreal.. 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. Why was the memorial so controversial? 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. 1. Scruggs and Doubek realized that Cupp could be instrumental in helping communicate the all-important personal, emotional side of the healing story. That changed in August 1964. Lin and VVMF eventually selectedthe Cooper-Lecky Partnership as the architect-of-record, with Lin as the projects design consultant. Laos, South Vietnam: 850,000 He was in Vietnam, serving in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Social critics and commentators quickly picked up and elaborated on Carharts characterization of the memorial. They responded quickly, recapturing lost ground and decimating an enemy who had finally come out to fight in the open. Communist losses were extremely heavy. It would be a way to honor the veterans and to help themand the countryheal. Mathias also knew the country was ready, Healy recalled. We do not memorialize bus accidents, which by nature are contextless, meaningless. In less than two weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the norths defenses. Our country needed something symbolic to help heal our wounds.. The NVA suffered some 120,000 casualties. Timing is everything, and enough time had passed. Revisiting the terms of this conflict not only provides insight into how and why visual art came to be so politicized in the 1980s, but also sheds light on the debates of our present historical moment, which, in many ways, parallel the debates of that period regarding the social purpose of art. The first phase encompassed the detail planning and preparations for holding the competition, said Spreiregen. Ho attempted to contact Eisenhower to discuss Vietnam but received no answer. They came from veterans and from the neighbors, teachers, coaches and friends of veterans. 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. When Scruggs went to see the movie in early 1979, it wasnt the graphic war scenes that haunted him. It would help veterans heal. Warner, at the time married to Elizabeth Taylor, had strong connections to both Hollywood and the corporate world. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Both the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) and the VC used torture, to extract information or to cowl opposition. I am tired of hearing it called such by you. Yet, this seemingly god-given shrine wears political feet of clay, and behind it lies a fierce controversy that re-opened the wounds of the war the memorial was designed to heal. This lends a sense of personal intimacy in a public space which helps create a sense of connection to the memorial. It was the Senators gut feeling that we needed to do this., This was serious business, Mathias said. It would have power for individual veterans, but collectively, they would have even greater power to show the enormity of the sacrifices that were made.. This message of personal responsibility, in contrast to governance by an elite group on behalf of individuals, became a hallmark of the Reagan administration. The Three Soldiers, 198284. His research had proven that post-traumatic stress was real and had shone a light on the challenges faced by a significant number of military veterans. Scruggs took a bold step in contacting Virginia Senator John Warner. Based on a program the British had employed successfully against insurgents in Malaya, it didnt work in Vietnam. 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. North Vietnam In November 2003, the LMDC placed the proposals of the eight finalists on display for public review.16 According to Sturken and art historian Anne Swartz, criticism of the designs, including that of the eventual winner, Peter Walkers and Michael Arads Reflecting Absence, revolved in large part around their perceived minimalist aesthetic, once again drawing on the rhetoric involved in the Tilted Arc debate. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Guerrilla warfare (asymmetrical warfare) does not permit such clear-cut data. 2) It applauded feminist efforts. Lacking sufficient services to assist their recovery, some of these unassimilated veterans turned to alcohol and other drugs, their addictions only sending them further to the margins of society. 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. I think I even spilled my coffee. But, her presence made a difference. Working with the construction manager, GilbaneBuilding Company, the design team had to locate the appropriate type of granite: a flawless, reflective, deep ebony stone. . 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. Like all stereotypes, this one was unfair. 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. Over the next few years, as the war came to a close and more and more troops returned home, the media began to paint a picture of the stereotypical Vietnam veteran: drug addicted, bitter, discontented, and unable to adjust to life back home. Two nights later, Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy were on patrol in the Gulf and reported they were under attack. Many had worked together, some in Washington. It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (19461954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In the Rose Garden of the White House, immediately following President Jimmy Carters signing of the bill, Scruggs explained to the press the vision of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the non-profit organization that collected and administered the funds for the memorial. Confused times need simple forms., According to the description of the design concept: The jury chose a design which will stimulate thought rather than contain it.. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. Popular dark tourism attractions include Auschwitz, Chernobyl and Ground Zero. 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. 170,000220,000 military The original design proposal called for all of the names to be individually hand-chiseled in the stone, but it was soon realized the time and money it would take to do that were impractical. 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. He would never forget those friends. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. Johnson wanted to focus on instituting Great Society programs at home, but Vietnam was a snake he did not dare let go of. 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. But Lin doesn't like anybody "drawing mustaches" on her design and, with the support of many in the Art world, pressures the Commission of Fine Arts to scuttle the compromise and hatch a new one. I just kept thinking to myself how quiet it was, and yet there was an immense feeling of community. Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. The Three Soldiers. On January 21, 1970, Jan Scruggs was having his morning cup of coffee, but he was far from his kitchen table at home. Unlike previous wars, where only still images or short movie newsreels were available for conveying images, this was Americas first television war. Cambodia Some of the juror comments included: Another article in the same issue of the Post echoed Wolfes definition of the terms of the debate, commenting that: There is a discordance between the sophisticated wall and the unsophisticated statue. 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. As VVMF focused on fundraising, Sens. Jan was a great spokesperson. Many people will not comprehend this design until they experience it. Healing meant many things to many people. It was decided that VVMF would hold a design competition, open to any American citizen over 18 years of age. 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. An official groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 26, 1982. Lin vociferously objected to the inclusion of Harts piece, arguing that it violated the integrity of [her] design and created the sensation of being watched, as if one were on a golf green. As Sturken points out, this did little to evoke veterans sympathy: Lin stuck to her position as an outsider . That afternoon, the winning design was selected, said Spreiregen. Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial. The body count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. 2. In 1993 the Vietnam Womens Memorial was unveiled a short distance from the wall. Were all the result of our upbringing. 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. Additionally, the emergence of Park51the proposed Muslim community and cultural center to be located a few blocks from the former World Trade Center siteas a major point of public interest and debate, which peaked during the 2010 congressional elections, confirms the continued political potency and cultural power of memorials as embodiments of representational practice. Security was improving even as American forces were in the process of withdrawing. 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. North Vietnam spent two years rebuilding its military; South Vietnam was hamstrung in its responses by a fear the U.S. Congress would cut off all aid if it took military action against communist buildup. Undoubtedly, news media played an important role in Americans saying, Enough. Indeed, Vo Nyugen Giap had always envisioned using media as one of his spear points for victory. 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. As Scruggs analyzed the concept of collective psychological states, he realized that, just as veterans needed psychological healing, so too did the nation. 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. A memorial made perfect sense to him. He had spent three months recovering in a hospital before being sent back to fight with rocket-propelled grenade fragments permanently embedded in his body. Mathias set up a meeting so he could learn more. Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. By June they had stalled the invasion, with the help of American airpower. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemys intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. Why were people angry about the Vietnam War memorial? Despite the fact that beyond certain superficial qualities, Lins memorial shared little in common with the work of classic Minimalist artists such as Richard Serra or Donald Judd, critics nonetheless conflated it with Serras equally controversial Tilted Arc, labeling it another example of an inscrutable Minimalist public artwork erected at taxpayers expense. 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. On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. 8. Ibid. How were Vietnam veterans treated when they returned from the war? The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The jury evaluation took place over five days, from April 27 through May 1, 1981. 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. They were the only father-son pair to die in Vietnam.) Hi, Im Claire. Experience the evolution of the Vietnam Wall controversy by reading through a chronological list of documents divided into five rounds: Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs initiates a hard-fought battle to build a Vietnam War Memorial, finally convincing Congress to appropriate land for a memorial that would be built with public funds. Rather, by honoring those who sacrificed, we hope to provide a symbol of national unity and reconciliation.1. However, the media was not the only entity invested in the veterans compelling predicament. They were feeling alienated from the nations leaders, and they had low self-esteem. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laoswhich had been part of the French colonyreceived their independence. Cupp had experienced firsthand the pains caused by the war. 14. It was a whirlwind of events, and the press coverage was unbelievable. Washington, D.C. Aerial view. 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. American involvement began to escalate under President John F. Kennedys administration (January 1961November 1963). Hanoi offered to restart peace talks, yet remained intransigent in its demands. 3. Nonsense. News footage showed the fighting in Saigon and Hue. Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. Its mirror-like surface reflects the images of the surrounding trees, lawns and monuments. An electrical storm was interfering with the ships radar and may have given the impression of approaching attack boats. He organized the advisors and volunteers into task groups: public relations, financial management, fund raising, legislation, site selection, and design/construction. Others questioned the intent of the Memorial. The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. movements and weakening the morale of Americans fighting in Vietnam. Two younger monks poured a mix of gasoline and jet fuel over him and, as the three had planned, set fire to him. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. To its own surprise, Hanoi found its forces advancing rapidly toward Saigon, realized victory was at hand, and renamed the operation the Ho Chi Minh Offensive. Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. By early 1980, contributions started to arrive. I had calculated that it was possible to see all of them in a minimum of 3 1/2 hours. For weeks, heated discussions took place around the topic of who should be part of the design jury. It seemed every time they contacted someone, they were greeted with enthusiasm for the idea. The task groups proved effective, as described by John Woods, who jointed as a key advisor. Among South Vietnams other allies, Australia had over 400 killed and 2,400 wounded; New Zealand, over 80 KIA; Republic of Korea, 4,400 KIA; and Thailand 350 killed. Mathias and Warner continued to rally support and ferry the legislation. Its army lacked reserves, while the NVA was growing. Architectural drawings and a one-page written summary, 1980 or 1981. 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? Her only son Robert, an Army draftee, was killed by a land mine on his 21st birthday, June 6, 1968. The Gold Star Mothers is a group of mothers whose sons or daughters have died serving their country. History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. The first American fatality was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., killed June 8, 1956. 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. Thus, it is unsurprising that the first skirmish of the culture wars of the 1980s can be traced back to the public debate that broke out in reaction to Maya Lins design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Instead they found bitterness and discontent and they were often disliked by the public. It ended with communist victory in April 1975. The VC and NVA dragged off as many of their dead and wounded as possible, sometimes impressing villagers into performing this task during battles, so determining their casualties was guesswork based on such things as the number of blood trails. The more people you got to co-sponsor, the more people wanted to join.. His political party, the Democrats, had been blamed for China falling to communism; withdrawing from Vietnam could hurt them in the 1964 elections. 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. Swartz, 95. The division was supposed to be temporary: elections were to be held in both sections in 1956 to determine the countrys future. Ibid. Financial costs had risen to $30 billion a year. 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. Waiting meant they would never reach their dedication deadline of November 11, 1982. On one side were the proponents of Lins memorials, defined in the media and the public imagination as Wolfes elitist art mullahs, draft dodgers, the future New Leftists, and, of course, followers of Jane Fonda (infamously dubbed Hanoi Jane after a trip to North Vietnam, during which she made statements condemning the U.S. military). 10. 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. By the March 31, 1981, deadline, 1,421 design entries were submitted for judging. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Credit: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) . Never in the history of the United States had a national memorial been conceived, approved, built and dedicated in that short an amount of time. 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. Success was measured in body count. It was to be a war of attrition and statistics, a policy that suited Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who distrusted the military and often bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff in issuing directives. The ARVN bent but did not break. To Heal a Nation, a book written by Jan Scruggs and Joel Swerdlow about the creation of the Memorial, provides a vivid sketch of the scene: I have heard your arguments, said General Price. 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. They needed support, friendship and help. 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. 11. As time progressed it caused more and more controversy in the United States. For years, American society as a whole, regardless of political affiliation, had studiously ignored Vietnam veterans, their presence a painful reminder of the wars moral ambiguity. 4. Scruggs, Wheeler, and Doubek then scouted the Mall sometimes by bicycle to identify the ideal spot: a stretch of parkland known as Constitution Gardens, located on the National Mall adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial.