why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?

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. We do not seek to make any statement about the correctness of the war, Scruggs said. As soon as the design was chosen,the next step was to consider the all-important details of getting it built. The series of events began on Wednesday, November 10, 1982, and culminated with a service at the National Cathedral on Sunday, November14. It was becoming apparent that we had been able to be instruments to something far greater than anything we had ever imagined.. For weeks, he obsessed about the idea of building a memorial. They came from veterans and from the neighbors, teachers, coaches and friends of veterans. Direct mail was proving to be a highly effective fundraising tool. They felt it was a slap in the face to those who had served because it did not contain traditional symbols honoring service, courage, and sacrifice. It distributed an instructional booklet communicating its vision to all who registered for the competition. 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. 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. The following February a strategic hamlet program began; it forcibly relocated South Vietnamese peasants to fortified strategic hamlets. A memorial made perfect sense to him. It was surreal.. 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. The controversy surrounding the memorial instantly vanished from the pages of the press, replaced by celebrations of its interactivity, tranquility, and emotive power. The jury evaluation took place over five days, from April 27 through May 1, 1981. The NVA had to take over. Just, Why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? Far from being a fait accompli, amassing the public will to support this new agenda took real work. She greeted each visitor in a regal fashion, wearing a dressing gown, perfect makeup, and beautiful shoes that curled up at the toes. 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. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by HistoryNet LLC, the worlds largest publisher of history magazines. In this sense, it was a complex ideological battle. As the commentaries of Wolfe, the New Republic, and the National Review demonstrate, the media was happy to add fuel to the fire of the veterans indignation through editorial contributions and obsessive coverage of the debate. Why were people angry about the Vietnam War memorial? Were all the result of our upbringing. An electrical storm was interfering with the ships radar and may have given the impression of approaching attack boats. 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. Thirty years later, it is difficult to think of her memorial as a controversial work of art. Why was Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial initially controversial? 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. Most at the meeting told him they didnt want a memorial; they wanted more benefits and government support. Ibid. Ho Chi Minh had been educated in Paris. But several weeks after the announcement, a handful of people began to protest the design. Larry Century, a young inventor from Cleveland, Ohio,was selected to serve as a consultant to Binswanger Glass Company in Memphis, Tennessee, which was awarded the contract for inscribing the names. Population in the south was mostly clustered in a few areas along the coast; the north always enjoyed a larger population. Four of the eight were themselves veterans of previous wars. Ho attempted to contact Eisenhower to discuss Vietnam but received no answer. That bothered him. Why was the Vietnam Memorial so controversial? - Yoforia.com Paul Haagas spouse, Heather Sturt Haaga, soon came forward to lend her experience in fund raising. ' Continuing, Wolfe sarcastically asked: Shouldnt public sculpture delight the public or inspire the public or at least remind the public of cherished traditions? They did not like its minimalist design. 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 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. To bring the design into reality would require an architect of record. 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. Many who visit leave behind items in memoriam to those that have served. The debate over Minimalism, applied to Lins design, provided new terms through which to resurrect Americas internal debate over the validity of the Vietnam War. Ibid. Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial. Scruggs added: Make this place look like an airstrike was called in, he instructed. It seemed unconscionable that heor anyone elseshould be allowed to forget. The division was supposed to be temporary: elections were to be held in both sections in 1956 to determine the countrys future. It was the most thoughtful and thorough discussion of design that I have ever heard, and I have heard many, he recalled. 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. 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. Eventually, a compromise was reached with the commissioning of a traditional statue depicting three servicemen with a flag to stand at the entrance to the memorial. After the dedication, Scruggs and Wheeler walked together along the upper side of the Memorial ground, near Constitution Avenue. Could a memorial accomplish such an enormous and daunting task? The greatest challenge VVMF faced, said Doubek, was to put together a functioning organization with people who didnt know one another, people who were very young and didnt have a lot of experience. 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. His reasoning was that a complete mess would make it tough to stop construction. Timing is everything, and enough time had passed. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. 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. The program, which had been poorly managed, was abandoned after about two years, following the coup that deposed Diem. When I meet Vietnam veterans who stop me to say thank you for creating the Memorial, I always want to say: thank you, for the service and sacrifices that all of you have made in service to your country, she added. You had to live through that period to really understand it. Each submittal had to be hung at eye level for review by the jury. No government funds would be necessary. Ms Lin arrived at a design solution to note those that were MIA with a symbol()that could be altered if the service member was found. 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. 5/1981 - 3/1982. Scruggs and Doubek realized that Cupp could be instrumental in helping communicate the all-important personal, emotional side of the healing story. I just kept thinking to myself how quiet it was, and yet there was an immense feeling of community. To make matters worse, Diem responded by sending troops to raid pagodas. In fact, he would spend a lifetime trying to honor their memory. Similar, even larger, atrocities were conducted by VC and NVA unitssuch as an NVA attack on a Buddhist orphanage at An Hoa in September 1970 or the execution of 5,000 people at Hue during the Tet Offensivebut the concept of American soldiers killing civilians in cold blood was more than many Americans could bear. He was an excellent partner and fundraiser. Mathias knew the legislative process. Overview Military conscription, commonly known as "the draft," is one of the most complex topics related to the Vietnam War. 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 Vietnam Wall Controversy - About - Overview - Lehigh University On that January day, There was a big explosion, Scruggs recalled. All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.12. They really worked well together and were the driving force. By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. The design competition also needed to be able to attract design competitors.. 4 (Summer 1996): 685. 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. Two U.S. helicopter units arrived in Saigon in 1961. 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. 20. Hidden in a hole in the ground, with no means of access for those Vietnam veterans who are condemned to spend the rest of their days in a wheelchair. 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. "The veterans were asking me, 'What do you think people are going to do when they first come here?'" Lin recalls. Mathias had grown increasingly concerned about how veterans had been treated on their return. 8. 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. 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. To achieve this effect she chose polished black granite for the walls. 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. Heralding the end of one era and the commencement of a new one, Reagan famously proclaimed, Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem, further adding that: From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. 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. Early in his efforts Scruggs had called on Emogene Cupp, then the national president of the American Gold Star Mothers. When the veterans began to return home they were greeted not with cheers and shouts of joy that soldiers met when they came home from WW2. 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 . That changed in August 1964. Cambodia Buddhists, who comprised South Vietnams majority, claimed Diem, a Catholic, favored citizens of his religion in distributing aid. 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. Two nights later, Maddox and the destroyer USS Turner Joy were on patrol in the Gulf and reported they were under attack. And none of them discussed their own personal feelings or political views regarding the war. In the nine months since hed been in-country, Scruggs had already seen a lot of action and had been wounded in a battle near Xuan Loc. Movies were dealing more realistically with their issues. Maya Lin worked closely with Cooper-Lecky on all aesthetic aspects of the design. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. Wheeler suggested that it should be a landscaped solution: a peaceful, park-like setting that could exist harmoniously with the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Vietnam Veterans Memorial | Facts, Designer, & Controversy The proposed Vietnam memorial was a . 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. It was very hurtful, Cupp recalled. Both the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN) and the VC used torture, to extract information or to cowl opposition. 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. It was like a Woodstock atmosphere in Washington for those who had served in Vietnam, recalled Scruggs. 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. Spreiregen recommended having a multi-disciplinary panel: two architects, two landscape architects, two sculptors, and one generalist with extensive knowledge about art, architecture, and design. And Congress had declared a Vietnam Veterans Week for that April to honor those who had returned home. For years, American society as a whole, regardless of political affiliation, had studiously ignored Vietnam veterans, their presence a painful reminder of the wars moral ambiguity. Westmoreland adopted a search-and-destroy policy to find and engage the enemy and use superior firepower to destroy him. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. 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. By the March 31, 1981, deadline, 1,421 design entries were submitted for judging. 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. Some of the juror comments included: Vietnam, however, was divided at the 17th parallel. On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. 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. Some felt that the money to build a memorial could be better spent delivering the many services veterans needed. It is a V-shaped polished black granite wall that runs 246 feet long. 3 (August 2004): 122. North Vietnam was a prodigy of both the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Red China. 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. Millionaire H. Ross Perot made a sizeable donation. North Vietnam Success was measured in body count. It was to be a war of attrition and statistics, a policy that suited Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who distrusted the military and often bypassed the Joint Chiefs of Staff in issuing directives. To its own surprise, Hanoi found its forces advancing rapidly toward Saigon, realized victory was at hand, and renamed the operation the Ho Chi Minh Offensive. On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar demonstration took place in America, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. Maya Lin, has gone on to become a respected architect and artist, with a studio in New York City. 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. When the time came, however, Diem resisted the elections; the more populous north would certainly win. The Inspiration. 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.. 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). 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. Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial. Throughout the judging process, one of the judges, Grady Clay, had taken meticulous notes of the jurys discussions.

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