Vietnam Veterans Memorial And Monuments

By Author: David Tang
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A conflict that started in controversy, ended with controversy, and has made nothing but controversy since. When the men returned home from war, they were not greeted with pride but with uneasiness. The veterans even faced controversy over their own memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been an issue of debate since its beginning, a debate that is far from worthwhile.
Vietnam is a very important war in the story of America s history. Vietnam was America s second most expensive war, behind World War II. It also is America s fourth most deadly. With a cost of 123 billion and a death toll of 57,661 American lives Divine 956 , it is hard to comprehend why it took this country ten years to dedicate a proper national memorial. Vietnam didn't t begin as a gruesome event that would give millions a chill with its mention. In fact, in December of 1962, there were ten to twelve thousand American troops participating in a nice little nine-to-five war Devine956 . The U.S. had a presence in Vietnam for the purpose of stopping the spread of communism. When the Americans wanted action, they could go out and find it, and when they ...
... wanted a break, it was said that they had no fear of counterattacks. This method of part-time warfare went on for a while, no fighting after 4:30 or on weekends, but unfortunately the situation changed dramatically. Two years later 50,000 more troops were sent down for combat. In 1967 40,000 men and boys were stationed there Divine 956. The combat was like nothing they had ever seen. At first air strikes were sent but they did not have as much effect as planned. Next, hoards of troops were sent in to search out the North Vietnamese in their own jungles. This ended up in complete failure due to the fact that the Vietnamese were so much better adapted for this guerrilla warfare. Not only were 303,600 soldiers wounded in battle, but troops often didn t have basic day-to-day commodities. Something that made this war different was not only that it was thousands of miles away from American mainland and had no potential for harm to the American public, but also that we had no real enemy. There were no Germans, no slaves, no rebels, just the vague idea of COMMUNISM on the other side of the world, an idea that many found too vague to be losing American boys to. Matt Moran 3 28 00. Rebellion began in the fall of 1694, at the campus of UC Berkeley. Students felt a responsibility to speak out because people they had grown up with were dying on the other side of the world, for debatable causes. In the end, Vietnam was, and still is, a very controversial issue. This controversy overhangs the veterans, the American public, and the Vietnam War Memorial as well.
Located between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in the Washington Mall, the Vietnam War Memorial continues to be a topic of HOT debate. Ten long years after the Vietnam conflict ended, many thought it was time to erect a monument, as had been done for the other wars in America s history, to celebrate the lives lost in this conflict. It was decided that there would be a competition for who would be the one to design it. A total of 1,421 people submitted designs for the contest. The winner was a Maya Ying Lin, a student at Yale majoring in architecture. This Chinese-American was given power over the money privately raised for the construction of the wall. The design is two walls forming a V each 246 8 long. They meet at an angle of 125 degrees, 12 minutes. Each of the two walls point at the northeast corners of the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Just in case this huge piece of stone was going to move somewhere, it is supported by 140 concrete pilings, each of which has be driven 35 feet down into bedrock. At the point of this V the height of the walls are 10 1.5.

All of the stone for the wall, including that for the walkways and safety curbs are black granite, quarried near Bangalore, India. The different parts don t all look the same but they are all made out of exactly the same stone. The reason for their differences in appearance is due to the different techniques used to finish them. Some parts were polished while the others were honed or flame treated. All of this work on the stone was done in Barre, Vermont. This may seem like a lot of travel for a monument, but there is more. The names and inscriptions were grit blasted in Tennessee. The letters are .53 tall and on average, .015 wide. The original 57.939 were all written in Optima typeset nps.gov .

In 1984 Frederic Hart made a statue of three servicemen -- A Black, a White and Hispanic-- to mollify some of the tension over the Lin design. This is a lifelike statue that depicts the heroism involved in the war. An American flag was also added. The statue was originally going to be added in the middle of the V but artists complained that it would disrupt the message of Lin s monument, so the three bronze men were placed over to the side. It is said that they appear to be looking at the names on the wall themselves. This statue was unveiled in 1984 and did a good job in satisfying the veterans. The last and final addition to The Wall was another sculpture by Glenna Goodacre, who created the Women's Memorial in bronze. The Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated Veterans Day weekend 1993.