Furthermore, the extreme visual simplicity of Lins monument made it easy for critics to utilize it in a concurrent debate about the merits of minimalist sculptures as public artworks. The jurors began by touring the site and then returned to Hangar #3 at Andrews to view each of the 1,421 designs individually. Laos, South Vietnam: 850,000 Seven more such immolations occurred that year. President Johnson, watching the broadcast, said, If weve lost Walter Cronkite, weve lost the country. In May, Johnson announced he would not run for reelection. American involvement began to escalate under President John F. Kennedys administration (January 1961November 1963). 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. Bob was the detail person and a good writer. "The veterans were asking me, 'What do you think people are going to do when they first come here?'" Lin recalls. Population in the south was mostly clustered in a few areas along the coast; the north always enjoyed a larger population. 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. 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 permit in hand, Doubek instructedto commence construction immediately. As a first step, VVMF retained architect Paul Spreiregen to serve as the Professional Advisor for the competition. 5/1981 - 3/1982. Lower Manhattan must not be transformed into a vast mausoleum, obviously, but neither must it be transformed into a theme park for advanced architectural taste.15, Such rhetoric spilled over from the initial debates surrounding the redevelopment of the site of the Twin Towers to those regarding the design for the memorial. The controversial Vietnam War was long and drawn out, fought in a humid terrain alien to American soldiers. Your donation to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will help expand our mission to honor, educate and heal. 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. 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. Color meant nothing on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. South Korea: 50,000 Prior war memorials had depicted brave soldiers riding horses, shooting guns, or at some other moment of triumphfor example, the massive Marine Corps War Memorial with its enormous bronze figures raising the American flag over Iwo Jima. (His son, Marine Corps lance corporal Richard Fitzgibbon III would be killed in action in Vietnam September 7, 1965. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. 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. How were Vietnam veterans treated when they returned from the war? 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. Scruggs and Doubek realized that Cupp could be instrumental in helping communicate the all-important personal, emotional side of the healing story. They were feeling alienated from the nations leaders, and they had low self-esteem. Although Americas war in Vietnam failed to salvage the Republic of South Vietnam, it bought time in which neighboring countries improved their economies and defensive capabilities, and it may have discouraged greater communist activism in places like the Philippines. 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. He found that returning veterans were finding it hard to trust people. 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. Kennedy saw American efforts in Southeast Asia almost as a crusade and believed increasing the military advisor program, coupled with political reform in South Vietnam, would strengthen the south and bring peace. For example, veteran Tom Carhart famously commented: I dont care about artistic perceptions, I dont care about the rationalizations that abound. With the jury selected, the next task was to announce and promote the competition. The domino fell but did not take down any of those around it. 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. Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial. It was a whirlwind of events, and the press coverage was unbelievable. 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. These meanings serve as unifying forces, reinforcing the idea of a shared national identity and healing rifts in the communal experience of nationhood. All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.12. 4 (Summer 1996): 685. 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. The first cut was further reduced to 90 by midday Wednesday. He closed by saying: To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. Her only son Robert, an Army draftee, was killed by a land mine on his 21st birthday, June 6, 1968. 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. 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. In addition to the accounts of its creation, sev- But if the challenges seemed insurmountable, no one expressed any fears. Jan Scruggss and VVMF members desire for a memorial that would heal the social rifts wrought by the war was wishful thinking. On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. . It would be a way to honor the veterans and to help themand the countryheal. Mathias and Warner continued to rally support and ferry the legislation. 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. 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. In 2009 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the site. The program, which had been poorly managed, was abandoned after about two years, following the coup that deposed Diem. I was dumbfounded that we had succeeded at doing this. . It was very hurtful, Cupp recalled. ever and endured a raging national controversy over the avant-garde . 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. 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.. 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. 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. Within months after he recovered from his wounds and returned to his unit, the American public was learning the details of the events at My Lai. Rather, by honoring those who sacrificed, we hope to provide a symbol of national unity and reconciliation.1. Following the Tet Offensive of 1968, the NVA had to assume the major combat role because the VC was decimated during the offensive. The Gold Star Mothers is a group of mothers whose sons or daughters have died serving their country. In August of 1981, VVMF selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lins design. Millionaire H. Ross Perot made a sizeable donation. Just before Christmas 1979, Warner hosted a fundraising breakfast in his Georgetown home. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation.. The senior staffers were against it. 15. Scruggs and Doubek met with Mathias to outline their plans. 11. 12 (2006): 95. 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. As a senior at Yale University, Lin entered a nationwide competition sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, and her design was selected from the more than 1,400 submissions that were received. The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954-1975. 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. At that time, they just ignored you and wished you would go away. They would include a big National Salute to Vietnam Veterans at Veterans Day. Scruggs added: Make this place look like an airstrike was called in, he instructed. Far from being a fait accompli, amassing the public will to support this new agenda took real work. She was regularly swept up and raced to the bomb shelter with her parents and siblings. It seemed every time they contacted someone, they were greeted with enthusiasm for the idea. And none of them discussed their own personal feelings or political views regarding the war. In late spring 1969, American and South . Only a few, such as the St. Louis Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, had been the result of open competitions. Memory Foundations (planned design for former site of World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York). The body count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. 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. 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. 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. They needed to secure a plot of land, raise funds and public awareness, design the Memorial, coordinate construction, and organize the dedication ceremonies. In July 1959, North Vietnams leaders passed an ordinance called for continued socialist revolution in the north and a simultaneous revolution in South Vietnam. 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. 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. Bronze. What they did need, however, was an acceptable location for the Memorial and enough support to push the idea through various governmental committees and agencies. Learn more about featured topics of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era. 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. Editors note: This essay was originally published on Art21.org in November 2011. In the Shadow of the Washington Monument. 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. 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. Because Warner was from Virginia and Mathias from Maryland, the two had worked together on many regional issues. The memorial consists of three parts: the Three Servicemen Statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Which Secretary of the Interior James Watt then threatens to scuttle! Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. In December Doubek became the Executive Director, working on a half-time basis for the first few months, and opened the VVMF office on January 2, 1980. By now, we are so accustomed to its visual rhetoricthe polished black granite, the lists of names, the horizontal positioningthat to think of these components as anything but standard practice takes an act of real imagination. Every 15 minutes, there was a pause for prayer. Westmoreland adopted a search-and-destroy policy to find and engage the enemy and use superior firepower to destroy him. 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. The flag-waving crowds even cheered., Over the four days there were also workshops, parties, events, and reunions. Overview Military conscription, commonly known as "the draft," is one of the most complex topics related to the Vietnam War. With such an overwhelming response to the competition, logistics became an issue. Holding a competition is like launching a rocket. 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. Everyone wanted to join the effort. To achieve this effect she chose polished black granite for the walls. I heard there was a group of serious veterans, not just people getting together to have a beer in the evening, but a group that was serious about getting together to address the problems of the veterans.. Many people will not comprehend this design until they experience it. Two U.S. helicopter units arrived in Saigon in 1961. The Vietnam War was a divisive and politically polemic war. But the meeting gave Scruggs his first ally: former Air Force intelligence officer and attorney Robert Doubek, who thought a memorial was a good idea. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. The U.S., possessing the largest foreign military presence, essentiallydirected the war from 1965 to 1968. Because the U.S. failed to achieve a military victory and the Republic of South Vietnam was ultimately taken over by North Vietnam, the Vietnam experience became known as the only war America ever lost. It remains a very controversial topic that continues to affect political and military decisions today. It was the most thoughtful and thorough discussion of design that I have ever heard, and I have heard many, he recalled. This would be a war without a front or a rear; it would involve full-scale combat units and individuals carrying out terrorist activities such as the Brink Hotel bombing. 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. American Artist discusses science fiction in the context of contemporary art and the concept of Colored Time.. 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. Because he possessed great knowledge of history, he understood the extensive healing process required after war. In the fall of 1980, VVMF announced the national design competition open to any U.S. citizen, who was over 18 years old. 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. At the time, well-managed open design competitions were common in Europe, but not in the United States. A tabula rasa upon which individuals could project their individual, personal experiences of the war was what the VVMF desired and, as historian Marita Sturken and others have observed, a tabula rasa was what they got. However, that posed a problem of how tolocate an individual name. A cadre was drawn from those who went north; they were trained, equipped and sent back to the south to aid in organizing and guiding the insurgency. 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. Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial. In retaliation for the invasion, and in hopes of forcing Hanoi to negotiate in good faith, Nixon ordered Haiphong harbor in North Vietnam to be mined and he intensified bombing of North Vietnam. Although publicly the war in the south was described as a civil war within South Vietnam, it was guided, equipped and reinforced by the communist leadership in Hanoi. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. 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). At the time of the memorials design, many veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical weapon used by the U.S. military as an herbicide and defoliant, still suffered ongoing health problems. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rise, clashing with the French colonial rulers. 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. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue by Frederick Hart.