why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?

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. Sturken, 125. General Westmoreland had been promoted to Army Chief of Staff and replaced in Vietnam by Gen. Creighton Abrams. By early 1980, contributions started to arrive. Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial. ' Continuing, Wolfe sarcastically asked: Shouldnt public sculpture delight the public or inspire the public or at least remind the public of cherished traditions? Initially, however, homefront support for the war effort grew, but by March Americans, perceiving no change in strategy that would bring the war to a conclusion, became increasingly disillusioned. Antiwar protests continued across America and in many other countries, but on April 28, 1967, Gen. Westmoreland became the first battlefield commander ever to address a joint session of Congress in wartime, and Time magazine named him Man of the Year. The design team and VVMF searched for a way for the names to be sandblasted rather than hand-carved. American intelligence knew an attack was coming, though the Army had downplayed a New York Times report of large communist troop movements heading south. She greeted each visitor in a regal fashion, wearing a dressing gown, perfect makeup, and beautiful shoes that curled up at the toes. Lin knew it was critical to maintain the simplicity of the design throughout the design development and construction process. Compounding the pain was that societys ill treatment of the veterans extended to their families. Why Were Vietnam War Vets Treated Poorly When They . The battle was suddenly over.. Its army lacked reserves, while the NVA was growing. The first cut was further reduced to 90 by midday Wednesday. Never in the history of the United States had a national memorial been conceived, approved, built and dedicated in that short an amount of time. They were feeling alienated from the nations leaders, and they had low self-esteem. 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. 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. 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. A few preliminary concepts were embraced. Our country needed something symbolic to help heal our wounds.. 4) It defied spatial perception. Four of the eight were themselves veterans of previous wars. The following February a strategic hamlet program began; it forcibly relocated South Vietnamese peasants to fortified strategic hamlets. ", 3: The Political Controversy, It was decided that VVMF would hold a design competition, open to any American citizen over 18 years of age. One of the lingering legacies of the Vietnam War is the widespread belief in America that the media cost us the war in Vietnam. Images such as the burning monk; South Vietnamese Police Chief Lt. Col. Nguyen Ngoc Loan about to pull the trigger of a pistol pointed at the head of a bound VC prisoner; of a naked young girl running crying down a road after an American napalm strike that left her badly burnedthese images and others became seared into the minds of Americans on the homefront, and in those of civilians in allied nations such as Australia. I think I even spilled my coffee. But, her presence made a difference. News footage showed the fighting in Saigon and Hue. 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. 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. Mathias also knew the country was ready, Healy recalled. This grew into the operation known as Rolling Thunder that began on March 2, 1965, and continued to November 2, 1968. On February 7, 1965, the U.S. Air Force began bombing selected sites in North Vietnam. 13. Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs, the individual to first pitch the idea of a memorial, used $2,800 of his own money to begin the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in 1979, according to History. Private Funding No government funds were used to build the memorial, only public land. 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. Marling and Silberman, 11. 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. 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. Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. Others: 80,000 plus, 200,000400,000 civilians 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. 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 . Video: Vietnam veterans memorial controversy. Vietnam War Memorial As soon as the design was chosen,the next step was to consider the all-important details of getting it built. Such images pack tremendous emotional punch but often lack context. Scruggs added: Make this place look like an airstrike was called in, he instructed. 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 years end, 2,573 individuals and teams had registered almost 3,800 people in total. Only a few, such as the St. Louis Gateway Arch, part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, had been the result of open competitions. That afternoon, the winning design was selected, said Spreiregen. Vietnam Veterans Memorial | Encyclopedia.com But the fact that the language deployed to critique Arads and Walkers design so closely echoed the criticism launched against Lin in the early 1980s signifies that the debates of that era remain unresolved. We didnt have any space, but I liked their idea and told them I would volunteer to help with all that I could.. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - U.S. Department of Defense 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. 12. Marinesnear Van Truong, from the VC point of view. Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Location, History & FAQs But I was always impressed with the example my parents set.. The Inspiration. Every 15 minutes, there was a pause for prayer. During the 1970s, it . Today, The Wall continues to be the most-visited memorial on the National Mall, attracting more than five million people each year. 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. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. He made an impassioned plea for funding to his guests, members of the defense industry. 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. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. 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. They treated the moms the same as they treated the vets. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. (Some in the North Vietnamese government thought the course of war in the south was unwise, but they were overruled.) The wars length and the growing number of casualties were fueling tensions. Having chosen Libeskinds overarching vision, titled Memory Foundations, in February 2003, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (tasked with coordinating the redevelopment of lower Manhattan and administering the nearly $10 billion in federal funds devoted to supporting that effort) two months later announced the memorial design competition. They really worked well together and were the driving force. Why was the Vietnam memorial so controversial? On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar demonstration took place in America, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. This 21-Year-Old College Student Designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. One example, cited in Grab Their Belts to Fight Them: The Viet Congs Big-Unit War Against the U.S., 19651966, by Warren Wilkins, is a description of the first major battle between the VC and American ForcesU.S. 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.. Early in his efforts Scruggs had called on Emogene Cupp, then the national president of the American Gold Star Mothers. Dana Joy Helwick explains how, and why, she uses contemporary artists as role models in her classroom. But several weeks after the announcement, a handful of people began to protest the design. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - Definition, Cause & Significance - HISTORY 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. It was also a hard-earned victory, leaving more than 300 U.S. 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. Ibid. But instead of enthusiasm, he received skepticism. 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. 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. During the Second World War, Vichy France could do little to protect its colony from Japanese occupation. A s memorials are objects of public commemoration, we demand a lot of them. Perhaps thats an appropriate design for those who would spit on us still. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation. 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. 4 Facts About Vietnam Veterans Memorial Controversial History Others questioned the intent of the Memorial. Color should mean nothing now., Sideys piece continued: At the end of five hours and much shouting, General Mike Davison, retired, who led the Cambodian incursion in 1970, proposed a compromise: add the figure of a soldier in front of the long granite walls that will bear the 57,709 names of those who died or are missing and the tribute to all who served. The Three Soldiers (also known as The Three Servicemen) is a bronze statue by Frederick Hart. The first fundraising letter was signed by Bob Hope. PDF A New World - US History Options It was like a Woodstock atmosphere in Washington for those who had served in Vietnam, recalled Scruggs. The controversy overshadowed the mission and what we were doing, until the Salute brought it all together. 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. In the fall of 1980, VVMF announced the national design competition open to any U.S. citizen, who was over 18 years old. In late spring 1969, American and South . Photo by William Bill Lecky. Jan was a great spokesperson. For this reason, in Vietnam today it is known as the American War. 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. 1. Frustrated, Nixon ordered the big bombersB-52sto strike Hanoi, beginning December 16 (Operation LINEBACKER). They stressed that all funds for the Memorial would be raised from private donations. On April 30, their tanks entered Saigon. They struck at least 30 provincial capitals and the major cities of Saigon and Hue. 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. Why the Vietnam War Memorial is amazing - Military Times Washington, D.C. Aerial view. The act of dark tourism is somewhat controversial, with some viewing it as an act of respect and others as unethical practice. It was the most thoughtful and thorough discussion of design that I have ever heard, and I have heard many, he recalled. 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. That disparity would decline before the war ended, but the racial tensions at home began to insert themselves into the military in Vietnam, damaging unit morale. It was surreal.. Washington, D.C. As memorials are objects of public commemoration, we demand a lot of them. Social critics and commentators quickly picked up and elaborated on Carharts characterization of the memorial. 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. Every major engagement between U.S. forces and VC or NVA was an American victory, and the casualty (body count) ratio always showed significantly larger casualties for the communist forces than for the Americans. 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. Daniel Libeskind. From the beginning, people have left tributes at its base. 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. The VC was effectively finished; it would not field more than 25,00040,000 troops at any time for the remainder of the war. Hanoi offered to restart peace talks, yet remained intransigent in its demands. Few areas of the world have been as hotly contested as the India-Pakistan border. It was the Senators gut feeling that we needed to do this., This was serious business, Mathias said.

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