Lins minimal plan was in sharp contrast to the traditional format for a memorial, which usually included figurative heroic sculpture. A Space of Loss: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial - JSTOR The jury evaluation took place over five days, from April 27 through May 1, 1981. He had studied the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, who wrote of shared societal values. 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. Civilian deaths during that time period were estimated at 2 million, but the U.S. estimate of civilians killed in the north at 30,000. The National Review commented, The mode of listing the names makes them individual deaths, not deaths in a cause; they might as well have been traffic accidents. Similarly, the New Republic opined: It is an unfortunate choice of memorial. 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. The Three Soldiers - Wikipedia Her only son Robert, an Army draftee, was killed by a land mine on his 21st birthday, June 6, 1968. Wheeler had the idea to bypass the traditional site selection route and have Congress pass legislation to award a specific area for a memorial site. In July 1959 Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand were off duty when they were killed during an attack at Bien Hoa. Its primary goal was to demoralize the North Vietnamese and diminish their manufacturing and transportation abilities. How should we remember a war that we "lost"? And none of them discussed their own personal feelings or political views regarding the war. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. A chronological listing would also allow a returning veteran to find his or her time of service on The Wall and those who died together to remain together forever on The Wall. Why was the memorial so controversial? Together with Spreiregen, he composed a report based on these thoughtful comments. The chief design criteria were that the memorial be 1) reflective and contemplative in character; 2) be harmonious with its site and environment, 3) make no political statement about the war itself, and 4) contain the names of all who died or remained missing. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. monument, Washington, District of Columbia, United States. 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. Cupp had experienced firsthand the pains caused by the war. Wheeler suggested that it should be a landscaped solution: a peaceful, park-like setting that could exist harmoniously with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Among other duties, Healy was the member of Mathias staff who handled memorials and worked as the liaison with the U.S. Department of the Interior. She is still remembered fondly by veterans for the moving Memorial she designed for them. With the site approved, VVMF scrambled to address the issues of what the Memorial would look like and who would design it. In 2009 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the site. An electrical storm was interfering with the ships radar and may have given the impression of approaching attack boats. This message of personal responsibility, in contrast to governance by an elite group on behalf of individuals, became a hallmark of the Reagan administration. Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 198182. 12 (2006): 95. In March 1979, inspired by the Hollywood film The Deer Hunter, Scruggs launched a personal crusade to raise funds for a memorial that would pay tribute to the soldiers who had lost their lives in the war. Instead they found bitterness and discontent and they were often disliked by the public. But the memorial might not exist in the form we see today if it weren't for the support of architects who defended the young architect's controversial design. By the March 31, 1981, deadline, 1,421 design entries were submitted for judging. and was so hurt by the controversy . The entire text size and layout Lin saw as an open book. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Scruggs and Doubek realized that Cupp could be instrumental in helping communicate the all-important personal, emotional side of the healing story. In November, a coup deposed Diem, with the blessing of Kennedys administration, which had quietly assured South Vietnams military leaders it was not adverse to a change in leadership and military aid would continue. Memory Foundations (planned design for former site of World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York). 1. The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 19541975. Sturken, 322; Anne Swartz, American Art After September 11: A Consideration of the Twin Towers, Symploke 14, nos. ever and endured a raging national controversy over the avant-garde . They did not like its minimalist design. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. And that message got through to me.. The controversial Vietnam War was long and drawn out, fought in a humid terrain alien to American soldiers. Woods remembered, I was like the kid at FAO Schwartz. 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. Sturken, 320. Joe Biden's slogan that it was time "to end the forever war" in Afghanistan was called imbecilic by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. One film that came out early that year,The Deer Hunter,explored the effects of war on three friends, their families and a tight-knit community. The memorial, located near the western end of the Mall, is a black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action. On the other side, the same thing was occurring, with even more inflated numbersvastly more. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue by Frederick Hart. Because Warner was from Virginia and Mathias from Maryland, the two had worked together on many regional issues. Over several tense weeks, more debate followed, until the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) gave their approval for a statue and flag in concept, pending suitable placement of those elements. They were real guys. The series of events began on Wednesday, November 10, 1982, and culminated with a service at the National Cathedral on Sunday, November14. 3. Paul Haagas spouse, Heather Sturt Haaga, soon came forward to lend her experience in fund raising. Maya Lin worked closely with Cooper-Lecky on all aesthetic aspects of the design. After meeting with the VVMF officers and advisors, Warner volunteered to help the organization raise the seed money needed to launch the fund raising campaign. 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. Scruggs took a bold step in contacting Virginia Senator John Warner. 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. 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. General Westmoreland had been promoted to Army Chief of Staff and replaced in Vietnam by Gen. Creighton Abrams. ' Continuing, Wolfe sarcastically asked: Shouldnt public sculpture delight the public or inspire the public or at least remind the public of cherished traditions? On the second day, the jury examined the designs together, walking the many aisles and stopping at each of the 232 designs that had been flagged by one or more of the jurors, pausing to discuss each design that had been noted. Post-war, the French tried to re-establish control but faced organized opposition from the Viet Minh (short for Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or League for the Independence of Vietnam), led by Ho Chi Minh and Giap. His political party, the Democrats, had been blamed for China falling to communism; withdrawing from Vietnam could hurt them in the 1964 elections. And if they were bitter, who could blame them? However, the years that saw the memorials proposal, design, and construction1980 to 1982coincided with a momentous shift in the topography of American political culture: the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and the ensuing negotiation of a new federal agenda. A memorial made perfect sense to him. But I was always impressed with the example my parents set.. By years end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. 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. Before he spoke, however, all eyes had turned toward the kitchen door, from which has emerged his then-wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. 15. A lingering question of the war is what might have happened if Eisenhower and Ho had arranged a meeting; possibly, an accord could have been reached, or possibly Ho was simply seeking to limit American involvement, in order to more easily depose the Diem government. They complained about the walls being black. 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. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation.. As a first step, VVMF retained architect Paul Spreiregen to serve as the Professional Advisor for the competition. 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. Doubek approached Scruggs after the meeting and suggested that he form a nonprofit corporation as a vehicle to build a memorial. This lends a sense of personal intimacy in a public space which helps create a sense of connection to the memorial. This alliance between the veterans and their conservative defenders was a new one, forged as a direct result of the cultural battle over the memorial site. You had to live through that period to really understand it. Jan C. Scruggs, a wounded Vietnam War vet, studied what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder upon his return to. The domino fell but did not take down any of those around it. Ronald Reagans election in November 1980 ushered in the Reagan Revolution, and the first few years of Reagans presidency saw the largest tax cuts in American history. . 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. It is a V-shaped polished black granite wall that runs 246 feet long. Mao Zedongs Communist Party had won the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and western governmentsparticularly that of the U.Sfeared communist expansion throughout Southeast Asia. Not only was Harts statue included at the memorial site, but a flagpole was added as well. But the war news was hopeful. And if they themselves didnt know how to help, they knew someone who did. We do not seek to make any statement about the correctness of the war, Scruggs said. 14. However, polls consistently showed the majority of Americans supported the war. 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. The Three Soldiers, 198284. We expect them to do the work of history writing, to draw single comprehensible narratives out of a Gorgon's nest of individual, often contradictory, experiences. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation. Earlier, in March 1968, the Americal Division had been involved in what became known as the My Lai Massacre, in which over 100 men, women and children were killed. That same month, Kennedy himself was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Location, History & FAQs 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. 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. 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 . 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. Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r3/october/, https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r4/1982/, https://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3407, Extending Beyond Craftsmanship, into Inquiry and Exploration, Horror, Contemporary Art, and Film: In Conversation with Dan Herschlein and Chad Laird. 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. By 1979, the country was beginning to have more positive feelings toward Vietnam veterans. Some of the juror comments included: In fact, he would spend a lifetime trying to honor their memory. The In Memory plaque, dedicated in 2004, is near The Three Servicemen and honors the men and women who died as a result of their service in Vietnam. Some opponents simply did not like the fact that Lin was a young student, a woman, and of Asian descent; how in the world could she possibly know how to honor the service of the Vietnam veteran? 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. American intelligence knew an attack was coming, though the Army had downplayed a New York Times report of large communist troop movements heading south. Healing meant many things to many people. Ike may not have seen the message, but at any rate he was focused on establishing NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) as a wall against additional communist advances in Europe and was intent on securing Frances participation in NATO. Or, people would tell me, Well why did you let him go? Of course, what choice do you have?. A different feeling prevailed among many within the U.S. government. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. The Memorials walls point to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, thus bringing the Memorial into the historical context of our country. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in Washington D.C., is a tribute to the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. Its mere existence would be societal recognition that their sacrifices were honorable rather than dishonorable. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. 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. The division was supposed to be temporary: elections were to be held in both sections in 1956 to determine the countrys future. I remind all of you of Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for justice for all Americans. Washington, D.C. Aerial view. Images of fighting, of dead and wounded soldiers, of POWs held in North Vietnam were beamed into Americas living rooms night after night, as was footage of hundreds, sometimes thousands of antiwar protestors marching through the streets. He also said there would be a pause in the air attacks on North Vietnam as the first step to de-escalate and promised America would substantially reduce the present level of hostilities.. Afghanistan and the forever war myth | Philip Collins IAI TV Others: 80,000 plus, 200,000400,000 civilians 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 winning designwas the work of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University. Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. Adding to Americans disillusionment was the race issue. To treat the Vietnam dead like the victims of some monstrous traffic accident is more than a disservice to history; it is a disservice to the memory of the 57,000.5. Casualties for the Republic of South Vietnam will never be adequately resolved. The Best Answer To The Question Why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? The design aroused a great deal of controversy, reflecting the lack of resolution of the national conflicts over the war as well as the lack of consensus over what constituted an appropriate memorial at the end of the 20th century. 20. Why the Vietnam War Memorial is amazing - Military Times The Inspiration. Movies were dealing more realistically with their issues. 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. But the slogan has proved remarkably effective and points to a deep truth: forever is a very short time in democratic politics, writes Philip Collins. But instead of enthusiasm, he received skepticism. To make his dream a reality, he planned to get support from people as diverse as former anti-war presidential candidate George McGovern and Gen. William Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. forces in Vietnam. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rise, clashing with the French colonial rulers. Its detractors perceived it as "a monument to defeat, one that spoke more directly to a nation's guilt than to the honor of the war dead and the veterans," describing it as the "black gash of shame," the "degrading ditch," and a "wailing wall for draft dodgers and New Lefters of the future." 4 Responding to its lack of 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. The administration was caught by surprise, however, when Diem was murdered during the coup, which was led by General Duong Van Minh. Free of overt historical reference to either the Egyptian or Greco-Roman traditions of monument designthe main visual touchstones for American memorial-buildingLins design broke with these traditions through its use of black granite, polished to a reflective smoothness (instead of white limestone or marble); its horizontal orientation, submerged into the earth instead of rising vertically; and its lack of any figurative ornamentation or any embellishment at all, save for the chronological listing of names of soldiers killed in the course of the war, etched into the granites mirror-like surface. Mathias and Warner continually stressed that their objective was to provide the country with a symbol for reconciliation. She greeted each visitor in a regal fashion, wearing a dressing gown, perfect makeup, and beautiful shoes that curled up at the toes. 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). In 1973 a "third" Vietnam war begana continuation, actuallybetween North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. That afternoon, the winning design was selected, said Spreiregen. Ibid. We do not memorialize bus accidents, which by nature are contextless, meaningless. The solution on how to locate a name evolved into a directory of names with an alphabetical listing andthe panel and line number of each name. The construction process hits a snag when relentless and powerful critics, led by Tom Carhart, find an unsavory political message in the supposedly apolitical winning design -- ultimately forcing a compromise, the addition of a flag and a statue with three soldiers to the Wall. 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. 4) It defied spatial perception. 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. It seemed unconscionable that heor anyone elseshould be allowed to forget. ), For three solid months, Spreiregen, Mosley, Woods, and Doubek planned the competition. The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentiallydirected the war from 1965 to 1968. On April 30, their tanks entered Saigon. Scruggs was raised in a rural Maryland town between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. His mother was a waitress; his father a milkman. No American air strikes came to aid the overstretched South Vietnamese, despite Nixons earlier assurances to Thieu. It was becoming apparent that we had been able to be instruments to something far greater than anything we had ever imagined.. As the selection of the granite was narrowed down, Lin was keen on preserving the notion that the granite walls be reflective and thin to help express a critical aspectof the design that the memorial was a cut in the earth that had been polished. They were the only father-son pair to die in Vietnam.) Sturken, 322. The ARVN bent but did not break. One day in October 1969, fifteen members of the Americal Division wore black armbands while they were on patrol, the symbol antiwar protestors wore in the states. There were so many people helping to get the legislation [passed], remembered Healy. Hanoi offered to restart peace talks, yet remained intransigent in its demands. While I was in training, my motivation was to get these wings and I wear them today proudly, the airman recalled in 2015. 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. Laos, South Vietnam: 850,000 Low estimates calculate 110,000 combat KIA and a half-million wounded. Why was the Vietnam War Memorial so controversial? - 2023 Sturken, 321. In the nine months since hed been in-country, Scruggs had already seen a lot of action and had been wounded in a battle near Xuan Loc. All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.12. In the end, the quarry in India was selected. Why was Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial initially controversial? 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. On January 21, 1970, Jan Scruggs was having his morning cup of coffee, but he was far from his kitchen table at home. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Wikipedia The whole week was extremely emotional, Becky Scruggs remembered. Jan was a great spokesperson. The NVA suffered some 120,000 casualties. The earliest of these battles was the controversy over Lins design. Both sides were fighting a war of attrition, so communist commanders sent Hanoi battle reports that often were pure fantasy. Early on in the effort to get the Memorial built, there were traces of controversy. Even white troops were beginning to protest. Emphasis switched to Vietnamization, preparing South Vietnams military to take over responsibility for continuing the war. Ibid. 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. Compounding the pain was that societys ill treatment of the veterans extended to their families. After working alone for six months, Doubek was joined on the staff by Kathy Kielich, who served as the Office Manager throughout the project. Like all stereotypes, this one was unfair. Its detractors perceived it as a monument to defeat, one that spoke more directly to a nations guilt than to the honor of the war dead and the veterans, describing it as the black gash of shame, the degrading ditch, and a wailing wall for draft dodgers and New Lefters of the future.4 Responding to its lack of narrative content, Senator James Webb called it nihilistic. Interestingly (given their opposing political positions), both the National Review and the New Republic equated the list of names with a police report on a traffic accident. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. Scruggs and Doubek began having regular meetings with John P. Wheeler, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School. In less than two weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the norths defenses. Oooo, not any more, not any more. Medals, toys, flowers, photographsanything and everything is left at The Wall as family and friends seek to remember their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. 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. The controversy over the planned 9/11 memorial at the former site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, which began nearly a decade ago, harkened back to the debates of the early 1980s and heralds the current resurgence of cultural warfare. Out of the nearly fifteen hundred entries in the competition, the eight jurors of the selection committee unanimously chose Maya Lins design on May 6, 1981. Using his findings, he testified at the Senate hearing on the Veterans Health Care Amendments Act of 1977, with the hope that he could help veterans gain access to the services and support they needed. 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. [3] It was the first representation of an African American on the National Mall. General Price, along with Senators Warner and Mathias and future Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, gave moving addresses before the command was given, and 150 shovels entered the ground with enthusiastic veterans enjoying the moment.