For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. Significant funding cuts to programs that had been instigated in the 1960s under Lyndon Johnsons Great Society domestic agenda followed, in addition to a major attack on union power. He organized the advisors and volunteers into task groups: public relations, financial management, fund raising, legislation, site selection, and design/construction. Lin knew it was critical to maintain the simplicity of the design throughout the design development and construction process. That changed in August 1964. Descriptions of the desired qualities for the memorial design included harmonious, contemplative and reflective, and again, conciliatory.2 The booklet concluded with the following passage: Finally, we wish to repeat that the memorial is not to be a political statement, and that its purpose is to honor the service and memory of the wars dead, its missing, and its veteransnot the war itself. They were real guys. 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. 4: The Artistic Controversy, 3/1982-11/1985 >>>>> 1988. The first phase encompassed the detail planning and preparations for holding the competition, said Spreiregen. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. At that time, they just ignored you and wished you would go away. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. In July 1980, Congress passed a bill authorizing three acres on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to serve as the memorial site. Mathias set up a meeting so he could learn more. Some of the juror comments included: It consists of a black granite wall with the names of over 58,000 soldiers who were killed or went missing in action inscribed on it. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. 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. During President Dwight Eisenhowers administration (19531961), financial aid was given to pay South Vietnams military forces and American advisors were sent to help train them. The vision of VVMF is to ensure a society in which all who have served and sacrificed in our nation's Armed Forces are properly honored and receive the recognition they justly deserve. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation.. And if they were bitter, who could blame them? With permit in hand, Doubek instructedto commence construction immediately. 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? 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. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - Definition, Cause & Significance - HISTORY The fact that such nongovernmental entities as the New York Times, CNN, and the Max Protetch Gallery took it upon themselves to solicit designs for both the new World Trade Center buildings and for suitable memorials to the attacks indicates the extent to which the American public writ large was attuned to the sites future. 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). 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. Traumatic memoriessuch as those of police officers brutally beating anti-war protesters at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago and members of the National Guard opening fire on students protesting the war at Kent State University in Ohiowere removed, like a tumor, from the body of the nation and assigned to another geographical location: Vietnam. 3) It provoked antiwar sentiment. Scruggs and Doubek met with Mathias to outline their plans. Every 15 minutes, there was a pause for prayer. PDF Why was the Vietnam War so Controversial? - University of Wisconsin The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954-1975. 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. Early in his efforts Scruggs had called on Emogene Cupp, then the national president of the American Gold Star Mothers. He had studied the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, who wrote of shared societal values. Mathias also knew the country was ready, Healy recalled. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Similarly, casualty totals among the VC and NVA and the number of dead and wounded civilians in North Vietnam cannot be determined exactly. When they returned home from serving their country, there was no national show of gratitude. The love and acceptance that the American people gave to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have continued unabated for over 25 years. Better armed than ever before, thanks to increased aid from the Soviet Union, they employed tanks for the first time. 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. As a first step, VVMF retained architect Paul Spreiregen to serve as the Professional Advisor for the competition. 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. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. Vietnam: A History of America's Controversial War VVMFagreed to the statue compromise, as well as to adding a flag and to reviewing the inscription on the Memorial, but they did not want to wait untila statue was designed before breaking ground. He was an excellent partner and fundraiser. Mathias knew the legislative process. When Scruggs went to see the movie in early 1979, it wasnt the graphic war scenes that haunted him. The body count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. An electrical storm was interfering with the ships radar and may have given the impression of approaching attack boats. They werent nice. American Artist discusses science fiction in the context of contemporary art and the concept of Colored Time.. Their initial timeline was aggressive, with an ultimate goal of dedicating the Memorial on Veterans Day 1982just a little more than 36 months away. By the time he returned home, three months after the explosion, the country was even further divided. Vietnam Veterans Memorial (eBook) - Julia Hargrove 2002-03-01 The Vietnam conflict was one of the most controversial engagements in the history of the United States. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: from Controversy to Healing Despite the stated wishes of the VVMF, Lins design proved instantaneously divisive. Before he spoke, however, all eyes had turned toward the kitchen door, from which has emerged his then-wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. 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. 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. They would include a big National Salute to Vietnam Veterans at Veterans Day. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). They serve as testaments to lives lost, as repositories of grief, and to facilitate processes of mourning. Reagans 1981 inaugural speech exemplified the political rhetoric used by his administration to promote his vision to the American public. She is still remembered fondly by veterans for the moving Memorial she designed for them. In less than two weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the norths defenses. 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. Inscribed on the black granite walls are the names of more than 58,000 men and women who gave their lives or remain missing. 4. Casualties for the Republic of South Vietnam will never be adequately resolved. The Three Soldiers - Wikipedia 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. ), For three solid months, Spreiregen, Mosley, Woods, and Doubek planned the competition. But can America truly mean that we should feel honored by that black pit?6. 12 (2006): 95. Two nights later, Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy were on patrol in the Gulf and reported they were under attack. That would have made any negotiation with Ho politically ticklish. Many had worked together, some in Washington. These mass-media fictions enabled the very real neglect of veterans by the institutions tasked with tending to their needs. 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. 15. 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. Maya Lin, has gone on to become a respected architect and artist, with a studio in New York City. 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. 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. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 25,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Vietnam Veterans Memorial | Encyclopedia.com 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. The whole week was extremely emotional, Becky Scruggs remembered. Veterans frequently found themselves denying their time in Vietnam, never mentioning their service to new friends and acquaintances for fear of the reactions it might elicit. 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. An author, teacher, and lecturer, Spreiregen had written the authoritative book on design competitions. The flag-waving crowds even cheered., Over the four days there were also workshops, parties, events, and reunions. Please leave evidence I will report anything other than this 1 See answer Advertisement lheduardomarques Over 500,000 wounded, Explore articles from the HistoryNet archives about Vietnam War. 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. Ultimately, one of the greatest challenges was how to get that many names on the wall panels in such a short period of time. It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. . They treated the moms the same as they treated the vets. 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. From the registration forms, it was apparent that architects, artists, designers, as well as veterans and students of all ages and all levels of experience were planning to participate. It set the tone for the ensuing cultural debates pitting the people against the elites, as found in Tom Wolfes criticism of Lins memorial design. 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. One of Mathias early key suggestions was that the memorial should be on the Mall, especially because the anti-war demonstrations had taken place there. In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earharts disappearance. Their military experience meant they had contacts far and wide, at all levels of all professions, within government and the private sector. 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. ", 3: The Political Controversy, Scruggs took two weeks off from his job at the Department of Labor to develop the idea further. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. Only a few, such as the St. Louis Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, had been the result of open competitions. The location secured, the seemingly uncontroversial process of articulating goals for a memorial and staging a competition draws over 1100 entries then the largest such design competition in the United States and the winner is Maya Lin's "Wall. The Vietnam War: Facts & Info About the Most Controversial - HistoryNet 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. 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. 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. However, polls consistently showed the majority of Americans supported the war. We do not memorialize bus accidents, which by nature are contextless, meaningless. Ibid. Warner, who had served as Secretary of the Navy during the war, was himself a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Sturken notes, "the memorial was seen 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." The disagreements over the design revealed anxiety about ownership of the war's representation. 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. 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. Critics of Lins design proposed that a second work be included on the memorial site, as a solution to the problem of the original memorial design: a figurative bronze statue by Frederick Hart of three soldiers in uniform, which had placed third in the initial competition. I ran over to see a truck on fire and a dozen of my friends dying. They had been unloading an ammunition truck when the explosion occurred. By the time of World War II, a number of groups sought Vietnamese independence but as Vo Nguyen Giapwho would build Vietnams postWWII armyexpressed it, the communists were the best organized and most action-oriented of these groups. . The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. And that message got through to me.. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. 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. 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. Like all stereotypes, this one was unfair. Dana Joy Helwick explains how, and why, she uses contemporary artists as role models in her classroom. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built without government funds. To created credibility for the fledgling effort, they formed the National Sponsoring Committee, which included then-first lady Rosalynn Carter, former President Gerald Ford, Bob Hope, future first lady Nancy Reagan, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, USA, Vietnam veteran author James Webb, and Adm. James J. Stockdale, USN. 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. On the other side were the veterans and their self-appointed spokesmen, politicians such as Webb and James Watt (Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan), and social conservatives such as Pat Buchanan. It was decided that VVMF would hold a design competition, open to any American citizen over 18 years of age. EIN: 52-1149668, Copyright 2023 The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Javascript must be enabled for the correct page display, History of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Architectural drawings and a one-page written summary, 1980 or 1981. Once there was no more room for conflictthe memorials form, upon dedication, was no longer negotiablethe front in this culture war moved elsewhere. Woods remembered, I was like the kid at FAO Schwartz. By the time the compromise statue is dedicated, a move for the addition of a women's memorial is already underway. Yet, to say the media cost America victory in Vietnam is vastly oversimplifying a very complex situation. The walls are inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 men and women . Subscribe to receive our weekly newsletter with top stories from master historians. History of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. After Lins monument was dedicated on November 13, 1982, however, it became a popular and moving tourist attraction. 19. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue by Frederick Hart. In the fall of 1980, VVMF announced the national design competition open to any U.S. citizen, who was over 18 years old. North Vietnamese officers, after the war, said the only thing they feared was an American-led invasion of the north, but the U.S. was not going to risk starting World War III, and at the time that seemed to loom as a distinct possibility. The added component of military security made the location even more attractive, since it would ensure no interference with the designs or the judging. The bronze sculpture, depicting three women caring for an injured soldier, recognized the work of the more than 10,000 women who served in Vietnam. With the site approved, VVMF scrambled to address the issues of what the Memorial would look like and who would design it. Ho Chi Minh led a communist government in the north (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) with its capital at Hanoi, and a new Republic of South Vietnam was established under President Ngo Dinh Diem, with its capital at Saigon. The jurors began by touring the site and then returned to Hangar #3 at Andrews to view each of the 1,421 designs individually. Doubek approached Scruggs after the meeting and suggested that he form a nonprofit corporation as a vehicle to build a memorial. Following the Tet Offensive of 1968, the NVA had to assume the major combat role because the VC was decimated during the offensive. Bronze. Corruption and instability in South Vietnams government did not instill confidence in its people, or in the Americans working with it. The insurgency was called the National Liberation Front (PLF); however, its soldiers and operatives became more commonly known by their opponents as the Viet Cong (VC), short for Vietnamese Communists. No government funds would be necessary. Cupp had experienced firsthand the pains caused by the war. Color meant nothing on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam. 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. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rise, clashing with the French colonial rulers. Most importantly, they needed to navigate the channels of government authorizations and approvals. Guerrilla warfare (asymmetrical warfare) does not permit such clear-cut data. 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. 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.

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