The winning designwas the work of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University. 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. They were the only father-son pair to die in Vietnam.) 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. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. Warner, at the time married to Elizabeth Taylor, had strong connections to both Hollywood and the corporate world. Yet, to say the media cost America victory in Vietnam is vastly oversimplifying a very complex situation. However, the media was not the only entity invested in the veterans compelling predicament. Sturken, 322. 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. Maya Lin, has gone on to become a respected architect and artist, with a studio in New York City. 10. The VC was effectively finished; it would not field more than 25,00040,000 troops at any time for the remainder of the war. The memorial was built to honor that spirit and the sacrifice of so many who gave everything they had to give. 3 (August 2004): 122. 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. During the Second World War, Vichy France could do little to protect its colony from Japanese occupation. Scruggs and Doubek met with Mathias to outline their plans. Early on in the effort to get the Memorial built, there were traces of controversy. 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. North Vietnam was a prodigy of both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Red China. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. 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. 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. Population in the south was mostly clustered in a few areas along the coast; the north always enjoyed a larger population. 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. Never before or since have journalists been given such complete access to cover a war. Perhaps thats an appropriate design for those who would spit on us still. With permit in hand, Doubek instructedto commence construction immediately. 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. 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. North Vietnam The controversy surrounding the memorial instantly vanished from the pages of the press, replaced by celebrations of its interactivity, tranquility, and emotive power. Mathias also knew the country was ready, Healy recalled. End-to-end, the total number of submissions would have stretched one and one third linear miles. 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. The Vietnam Women's Memorial was established to honor the women who risked their lives to serve their country. Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. Instead, the memorial became a dividing line between factions both real and imagined. How should we remember a war that we "lost"? Climbing Hamburger Hill 50 years after the Vietnam War's The Battle of Hamburger Hill was fought May 10-20, 1969, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The design Lin envisioned listed the names chronologically by date of casualty. The French suffered a major defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, leading to negotiations that ended with the Geneva Agreements, July 21, 1954. 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. And Congress had declared a Vietnam Veterans Week for that April to honor those who had returned home. A few preliminary concepts were embraced. 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 seemed every time they contacted someone, they were greeted with enthusiasm for the idea. 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. However, polls consistently showed the majority of Americans supported the war. Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 198182. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. 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. PDF A New World - US History Options This presented the new MACV commander (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam), General William C. Westmoreland with a thorny challenge: how to show the American people progress was being made. 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. By the end of 1967, there were 540,000 American troops in Vietnam, and the military draft was set to call up 302,000 young men in the coming year, an increase of 72,000 over 1967. Civilian loss of life was also very heavy, with the lowest estimates around 415,000. . North and South Vietnam were combined into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? But, say those opposed, the men represent the women, the men represent all soldiers . 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. By the time the compromise statue is dedicated, a move for the addition of a women's memorial is already underway. Cupp had experienced firsthand the pains caused by the war. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. 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 Before the 1880s, the French controlled Vietnam. 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. Instead, Lin found John Benson, a master stonecutter, to hand cut the text at the apex the years of the earliest and latest casualties from the Department of Defense list and the brief prologue and epilogue adjacent to the dates. 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. 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. 170,000220,000 military Each submittal had to be hung at eye level for review by the jury. The families of service members who were missing in action originally wanted their names listed separately. And if they themselves didnt know how to help, they knew someone who did. But I was always impressed with the example my parents set.. Ruling out an invasion of North Vietnam assured that a purely military victory would not be possible, a fact that was at odds with many Americans expectations for the war. 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. 1. Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. Please leave evidence I will report anything other than this 1 See answer Advertisement lheduardomarques It was designed by American architect Maya Lin. Selecting a design that would meet the criteria demanded a jury that could grasp the significance of the Memorials purpose and understand the unique needs of Vietnam veterans, their families, and a country divided. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue by Frederick Hart. ' Continuing, Wolfe sarcastically asked: Shouldnt public sculpture delight the public or inspire the public or at least remind the public of cherished traditions? Why was the Vietnam memorial so controversial? (Some in the North Vietnamese government thought the course of war in the south was unwise, but they were overruled.) ", 3: The Political Controversy, On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. Memory Foundations (planned design for former site of World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, New York). 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. 12. My background was relatively modest, he said. The NVA had to take over. The Inspiration. The earliest of these battles was the controversy over Lins design. Video: Like the war itself, this memorialization was highly controversial, but the site has become the most frequently visited memorial in Washington, D.C., drawing over 4 million visitors annually. It was World War II and her family lived in Nam Dinh, an industrial city and military target on the north coast of Vietnam. They really worked well together and were the driving force. His political party, the Democrats, had been blamed for China falling to communism; withdrawing from Vietnam could hurt them in the 1964 elections. A flower is laid on the names of fallen troops on "The Wall" of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington on Nov. 12, 2018. . 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.