Doubek approached Scruggs after the meeting and suggested that he form a nonprofit corporation as a vehicle to build a memorial. Overview Military conscription, commonly known as "the draft," is one of the most complex topics related to the Vietnam War. Marling and Silberman, 11. Why was the Vietnam Memorial so controversial? - Yoforia.com 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. Medals, toys, flowers, photographsanything and everything is left at The Wall as family and friends seek to remember their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. The ceasefire allowed Nixon to declare peace with honor, but no provisions existed for enforcing the terms of the accords. Healing meant many things to many people. The task groups proved effective, as described by John Woods, who jointed as a key advisor. And if they themselves didnt know how to help, they knew someone who did. 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. They did not like the idea that it was below ground level. Republican Richard Nixon won the presidency in the fall elections. Sturken, 320. They were either ignored or shouted at and called vicious names. Vietnam has a long history of being ruled by foreign powers, and this led many Vietnamese to see the United States involvement in their country as neo-colonialism. Remembering Vietnam | National Archives 13. Congress swiftly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that removed most restrictions from the president in regards to Vietnam. As soon as the design was chosen,the next step was to consider the all-important details of getting it built. Compounding the pain was that societys ill treatment of the veterans extended to their families. 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. With the seed money from several defense industry donors, especially Grumman Aerospace, VVMF launched its first large-scale direct mail campaign to reach out to the public. In large part, this was accomplished through a series of conflicts waged at the level of culture. Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - Definition, Cause & Significance - HISTORY For the millions of people who visit each year, Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall sends a chilling message about war, heroism, and sacrifice. He had been a war correspondent during World War II and had reported from Vietnam during Americas early involvement. The proposed Vietnam memorial was a . 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. Nonsense. That afternoon, the winning design was selected, said Spreiregen. The controversy over the planned 9/11 memorial at the former site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, which began nearly a decade ago, harkened back to the debates of the early 1980s and heralds the current resurgence of cultural warfare. But the veterans had real problems. He also found that those veterans whose units experienced high casualty rates were experiencing higher divorce rates and a greater frequency of combat-related dreams. On September 30, 1964, the first large-scale antiwar demonstration took place in America, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. By the time he returned home, three months after the explosion, the country was even further divided. The original design proposal called for all of the names to be individually hand-chiseled in the stone, but it was soon realized the time and money it would take to do that were impractical. 3) It provoked antiwar sentiment. In July 1959 Major Dale Buis and Master Sergeant Chester Ovnand were off duty when they were killed during an attack at Bien Hoa. A few of the most vocal opponents, including James Webb and H. Ross Perot, had previously been strong supporters of a memorial. Paul Haagas spouse, Heather Sturt Haaga, soon came forward to lend her experience in fund raising. Initially the (Senators) staff was split, recalled Monica Healy, a long-time Mathias aide, on whether Mathias should take the lead and support the efforts to build the Memorial. Just before Christmas 1979, Warner hosted a fundraising breakfast in his Georgetown home. All of them realized how critical it was that a memorial be apolitical. It distributed an instructional booklet communicating its vision to all who registered for the competition. However, that posed a problem of how tolocate an individual name. Watt followed on March 11, 1982, by granting permission for the construction permits. Why the Battle for Hamburger Hill Was So Controversial. Scruggs and Doubek met with Mathias to outline their plans. Many felt it should be composed primarily of veterans; others felt it should be made up only of professionals; some thought a mix of the two would be best. We do not seek to make any statement about the correctness of the war, Scruggs said. Omissions? 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. Memorials are built to give context and, possibly, meaning to suffering that is otherwise incomprehensible. 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. These meanings serve as unifying forces, reinforcing the idea of a shared national identity and healing rifts in the communal experience of nationhood. It seemed unconscionable that heor anyone elseshould be allowed to forget. It was the Senators gut feeling that we needed to do this., This was serious business, Mathias said. 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. It was the most thoughtful and thorough discussion of design that I have ever heard, and I have heard many, he recalled. 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. In the end, the quarry in India was selected. Together with Spreiregen, he composed a report based on these thoughtful comments. By years end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. 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. Others: 80,000 plus, 200,000400,000 civilians The Vietnam War: Facts & Info About the Most Controversial - HistoryNet The memorial, located near the western end of the Mall, is a black granite V-shaped wall inscribed with the names of the approximately 58,000 men and women who were killed or missing in action. There were so many people helping to get the legislation [passed], remembered Healy. To achieve this effect she chose polished black granite for the walls. 2. Sturken, 322. 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. On January 21, 1970, Jan Scruggs was having his morning cup of coffee, but he was far from his kitchen table at home. 4 Facts About Vietnam Veterans Memorial Controversial History By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. Bronze. 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. Architectural drawings and a one-page written summary, 1980 or 1981. 5/1981 - 3/1982. Just, Why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? We had to build credibility among the design community, but also build credibility with the veterans, said Woods. Many who visit leave behind items in memoriam to those that have served. Among South Vietnams other allies, Australia had over 400 killed and 2,400 wounded; New Zealand, over 80 KIA; Republic of Korea, 4,400 KIA; and Thailand 350 killed. 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. With such an overwhelming response to the competition, logistics became an issue. 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. 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. Its mere existence would be societal recognition that their sacrifices were honorable rather than dishonorable. At that time, they just ignored you and wished you would go away. The body count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. More than 150,000 veterans, families, loved ones and friends made plans to attend. 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. The Veterans Administration hospital system was underfunded and ill-equipped to help Vietnam veterans deal with either their physical ailments or the psychological challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder. Thirty years later, it is difficult to think of her memorial as a controversial work of art. Scruggs took two weeks off from his job at the Department of Labor to develop the idea further. Every 15 minutes, there was a pause for prayer. By Thursday morning, it was down to 39. Two U.S. helicopter units arrived in Saigon in 1961. 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 Inspiration. Similarly, casualty totals among the VC and NVA and the number of dead and wounded civilians in North Vietnam cannot be determined exactly. 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. Corrections? Unlike previous wars, where only still images or short movie newsreels were available for conveying images, this was Americas first television war. Throughout the judging process, one of the judges, Grady Clay, had taken meticulous notes of the jurys discussions. The reputation of the jurors was important to attract the best designers and to minimize second guessing by the Federal approval bodies. Which Secretary of the Interior James Watt then threatens to scuttle! Im the News & Social Editor at HistoryNet and a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill, Spitfires, and Michigan football.