why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?

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.. After 25 years, the way in which visitors have embraced and cherished this work has been a great gift to me, she wrote in the program for the 25th anniversary ceremony. An author, teacher, and lecturer, Spreiregen had written the authoritative book on design competitions. 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. Early in his efforts Scruggs had called on Emogene Cupp, then the national president of the American Gold Star Mothers. Spreiregen, a graduate of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, was a Fulbright Scholar who had served as the director of urban design programs at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) from 1962-66 and as the first director of architecture programs at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1966-70. 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. News footage showed the fighting in Saigon and Hue. He found that returning veterans were finding it hard to trust people. Although the United States won the war in a numerical sense, having far less casualties than North Vietnam, the U.S. did not accomplish what they had set out to do. 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. 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. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. Sturken, 322. They complained about the walls being black. Or, people would tell me, Well why did you let him go? Of course, what choice do you have?. 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. ever and endured a raging national controversy over the avant-garde . History of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Michael Clark, Remembering Vietnam, Cultural Critique 3 (Spring 1986): 50. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 But, say those opposed, the men represent the women, the men represent all soldiers . General Westmoreland had been promoted to Army Chief of Staff and replaced in Vietnam by Gen. Creighton Abrams. The design Lin envisioned listed the names chronologically by date of casualty. Before he spoke, however, all eyes had turned toward the kitchen door, from which has emerged his then-wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also called The Wall, national monument in Washington, D.C., honouring members of the U.S. armed forces who served and died in the Vietnam War (195575). 7. Cupp had experienced firsthand the pains caused by the war. In July 1959, North Vietnams leaders passed an ordinance called for continued socialist revolution in the north and a simultaneous revolution in South Vietnam. 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. 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. Both sides were fighting a war of attrition, so communist commanders sent Hanoi battle reports that often were pure fantasy. The Vietnam War Starts In 1954, following the defeat of the French colonialists at the hands of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, the last battle of the First Indochina War, the country of. Scruggs would never forget the awful scene. 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. 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. In the early 20th century, Vietnamese nationalism began to rise, clashing with the French colonial rulers. The designs were received and processed in a large warehouse east of Washington. Crowd at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, located in Washington D.C., is a tribute to the soldiers who served in the Vietnam War. The first American fatality was Air Force Technical Sergeant Richard B. Fitzgibbon, Jr., killed June 8, 1956. The families of service members who were missing in action originally wanted their names listed separately. Instead, the memorial became a dividing line between factions both real and imagined. The following week, Kurt Anderson recapped the festivities for TIME magazine: Saturdays three-hour parade down Constitution Avenue, led by [Gen. William] Westmoreland, was the vets own show. I have a Master's degree in military history from King's College, London and my cornucopia of interests include: World War II, World War II, and World War II. Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. The communist takeover of China and subsequent war in Korea (1950-53) against North Korean and Chinese troops had focused a great deal of attention on Southeast Asia as a place to take a strong stand against the spread of communism. How did people react to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? ), For three solid months, Spreiregen, Mosley, Woods, and Doubek planned the competition. Security was improving even as American forces were in the process of withdrawing. It was decided that VVMF would hold a design competition, open to any American citizen over 18 years of age. Maya Lin was practically a kid when her design was selected to become the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Unlike previous wars, where only still images or short movie newsreels were available for conveying images, this was Americas first television war. 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. 1. The Three Soldiers, 198284. Private Funding No government funds were used to build the memorial, only public land. Marling and Silberman, 11. 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. The Vietnam Wall Controversy, Round 4, 1982, History on Trial, Lehigh University Digital Library, accessed April 21, 2011, https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r4/1982/. The love and acceptance that the American people gave to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial have continued unabated for over 25 years. Movies were dealing more realistically with their issues. I was dumbfounded that we had succeeded at doing this. 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. Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial. With the site approved, VVMF scrambled to address the issues of what the Memorial would look like and who would design it. Maya Lin, has gone on to become a respected architect and artist, with a studio in New York City. Instead they found bitterness and discontent and they were often disliked by the public. Lin moved to Washington and immediately became part of an internal struggle for control of the design. . 6. zThe Vietnam Wall Controversy, Round 3, October 1981January 1982, History on Trial, Lehigh University Digital Library, accessed April 21, 2011, https://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/trial/vietnam/r3/october/. 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 . Today, The Wall continues to be the most-visited memorial on the National Mall, attracting more than five million people each year. Millionaire H. Ross Perot made a sizeable donation. Perhaps Lins centralitytwenty years after the construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorialto the debate over Arads and Walkers design was inevitable, given her presence on the design competitions selection committee as well as her legacy as the definitive memorial builder of the late twentieth century. The Vietnam War is the commonly used name for the Second Indochina War, 1954-1975. Never before or since have journalists been given such complete access to cover a 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 the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). William Jayne, who had been wounded in Vietnam, volunteered to head up public relations activities. Sturken, 320. During the Second World War, Vichy France could do little to protect its colony from Japanese occupation. Because Warner was from Virginia and Mathias from Maryland, the two had worked together on many regional issues. 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. It was very hurtful, Cupp recalled. And her design was nearly as controversial as the war it commemorated. Although differences in the two bills required a Conference Committee to meet, on July 1, at a White House Rose Garden ceremony, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation providing two acres for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. Ultimately, the VVMF Board agreed on a jury of the most experienced and prestigious artists and designers that could be found, since it took a mature eye to envision from two-dimensional renderings how a design would look when built. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. Once Scruggs decided to build the memorial, the next step was to get some people behind him. But the veterans had real problems. 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.. 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. But several weeks after the announcement, a handful of people began to protest the design. An ad hoc group of veterans had scheduled a meeting to try to use Vietnam Veterans Week to generate publicity for veterans need, and Scruggs thought that would be a good time to announce his plans. 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. At that time, they just ignored you and wished you would go away. I just kept thinking to myself how quiet it was, and yet there was an immense feeling of community. The shift, however, did not represent a resolved conflict between public art and public memory and memorialization, but merely a temporary relocation of the site of debate. 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.. United States: 540,000 In less than two weeks, these strategic bombers had shattered the norths defenses. 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. For example, veteran Tom Carhart famously commented: I dont care about artistic perceptions, I dont care about the rationalizations that abound. Were all the result of our upbringing. 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. With such an overwhelming response to the competition, logistics became an issue. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laoswhich had been part of the French colonyreceived their independence. The choice of the lettering style Optima, designed by Hermann Zapf was a font Lin selected after considering a multitude of options.The font Optima seemed to fit that desire to match an almost printed quality with a hand-cut feel. The French suffered a major defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, leading to negotiations that ended with the Geneva Agreements, July 21, 1954. 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. 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 whole week was extremely emotional, Becky Scruggs remembered. They needed to secure a plot of land, raise funds and public awareness, design the Memorial, coordinate construction, and organize the dedication ceremonies. Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in the fall elections. 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. Ibid. That changed in August 1964. The Vietnam War was a divisive and politically polemic war. The Memorial had several purposes, he explained. Watt followed on March 11, 1982, by granting permission for the construction permits. The Memorials walls point to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, thus bringing the Memorial into the historical context of our country. 10. Jan was a great spokesperson. Washington, D.C. Aerial view. It seemed every time they contacted someone, they were greeted with enthusiasm for the idea. Once there was no more room for conflictthe memorials form, upon dedication, was no longer negotiablethe front in this culture war moved elsewhere. By years end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. It is a V-shaped polished black granite wall that runs 246 feet long. Following a march by thousands of veterans through the streets of Washington, D.C., to the National Mall site, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982. The earliest of these battles was the controversy over Lins design. Nonsense. A different feeling prevailed among many within the U.S. government. Marinesnear Van Truong, from the VC point of view. 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. But instead of enthusiasm, he received skepticism. Their military experience meant they had contacts far and wide, at all levels of all professions, within government and the private sector. Which Secretary of the Interior James Watt then threatens to scuttle! 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.