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Vietnam Veterans Memorial

By VVAW

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington is back in the news again. Maya Ying Lin, the Yale architecture student who won the well-publicized contest to design the memorial, has challenged the additions to her design; they are "like adding a mustache to a work of art," she is reported as saying.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial began as an individual effort by Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam vet. His establishment of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund brought in contributions from around the country, primarily from vets and the families of those who died in Vietnam. The contest for the design of the Memorial, funded at the beginning with $160,000 from H. ross Perot, Texas multi-billionaire who also builds private armies to rescue POW's, was judged by a panel of artists and experts and ended up with a design: a black granite V-shaped wall with the names of the Vietnam dead inscribed on it.

Vietnam vets had no coming home parade, found they were often not welcome in traditional vets organizations, and got little or no help from the government with problems like post-traumatic stress disorders or Agent Orange poisoning.

When asked about the Memorial, most vets had no objection to the project, though many said they would prefer action on some of the many problems facing vets as a more realistic "memorial." Of course, that was not to be.

While there was considerable controversy over the design of Memorial when the contest had ended, the flap really got going once the government entered the picture.

Though the money to build the Memorial came entirely through private donations, the government was asked to provide the land on which to build it. The resolution to set aside land between the Washington and Lincoln Monuments passed unanimously—even Congress can understand a good thing when the see it, and here was something that could be used to tell vets, "You've got a Memorial" even though you don't have anything else. And beside that, it was free, except for some land which wasn't being used anyhow.

Politics suddenly entered the pictures, however. Conservative Senators, spurred on by Alabama's Jeremiah Denton took issue with the design since the "V" shape was reminiscent of the "V" flashed by peace demonstrators during the anti-war days. The Memorial, moreover, was not "heroic" (as if Vietnam was an heroic war). The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund quickly caved in to Congressional pressure; in the middle of the old design would be placed a heroic statue (the infantryman, remembered by all those who spent their time at Ft Benning, GA, with his arm raised to say "Follow Me") and a flag at the center of the "V."

But eve a dunce like Denton could finally get it through his thick head that "Follow Me" into another Vietnam was not a message that the government wanted publicized (no matter how much they wanted to do it.) Plans for the statue now call for three soldiers, one Black and two white, in tattered fatigues, without weapons (an M-16 was considered too "controversial").

Despite the complicated judging of the initial designs, the statue, done by Washington artist Frederick Hart (who finished in 3rd or 4th place in the initial judging) has scraped by with only the approval of Scruggs and a few Congressmen. And Maya Ying Lin, whose design went through a rigorous selection process is understandably upset.