The priorities were to launch fund raising and achieve passage of the authorizing legislation. Furthermore, he explicitly framed his interpretation of the memorial in (perceived) opposition to an explicitly artistic perspective. He had studied the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, who wrote of shared societal values. Im sure I looked like a deer in the headlights, I was so nervous, Scruggs recalled. Why Were Vietnam War Vets Treated Poorly When They . Two younger monks poured a mix of gasoline and jet fuel over him and, as the three had planned, set fire to him. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. They were feeling alienated from the nations leaders, and they had low self-esteem. Mathias and Warner continued to rally support and ferry the legislation. Ibid. 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. On January 27, 1973, peace accords were signed between North Vietnam and the U.S. 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. Yet, to say the media cost America victory in Vietnam is vastly oversimplifying a very complex situation. After Lins monument was dedicated on November 13, 1982, however, it became a popular and moving tourist attraction. As the selection of the granite was narrowed down, Lin was keen on preserving the notion that the granite walls be reflective and thin to help express a critical aspectof the design that the memorial was a cut in the earth that had been polished. One film that came out early that year,The Deer Hunter,explored the effects of war on three friends, their families and a tight-knit community. In 1973 a third Vietnam war begana continuation, actuallybetween North and South Vietnam but without significant U.S. involvement. I am tired of hearing it called such by you. The hope is that the creation of the Memorial will begin a healing process, Doubek wrote. 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. 13. 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. Then, on March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese attacked across the 17th parallel with 14 divisions and additional individual regiments. We are all equal in combat. By Thursday morning, it was down to 39. The body count policy fell into disfavor and was not employed in future American wars; in Vietnam it led officers to inflate enemy casualties. Private Funding No government funds were used to build the memorial, only public land. 14. What they did need, however, was an acceptable location for the Memorial and enough support to push the idea through various governmental committees and agencies. The Vietnam War Starts In 1954, following the defeat of the French colonialists at the hands of the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, the last battle of the First Indochina War, the country of. The controversy surrounding the memorial instantly vanished from the pages of the press, replaced by celebrations of its interactivity, tranquility, and emotive power. By June they had stalled the invasion, with the help of American airpower. Early in his efforts Scruggs had called on Emogene Cupp, then the national president of the American Gold Star Mothers. By years end, 23,000 American military personnel would be in South Vietnam. Marinesnear Van Truong, from the VC point of view. We had to constantly find the most effective next step to take and be sure not to get waylaid by tangents. The group started to hold regular planning meetings. In August of 1981, VVMF selected a building company and architecture firm to develop the plans and build Lins design. Spreiregen, a graduate of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, was a Fulbright Scholar who had served as the director of urban design programs at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) from 1962-66 and as the first director of architecture programs at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1966-70. As time progressed it caused more and more controversy in the United States. They needed support, friendship and help. Throughout the judging process, one of the judges, Grady Clay, had taken meticulous notes of the jurys discussions. Hi, Im Claire. There is considerable debate over whether he was primarily nationalist or communist, but he was not especially anti-Western. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, also called The Wall, national monument in Washington, D.C., honouring members of the U.S. armed forces who served and died in the Vietnam War (1955-75). The solution on how to locate a name evolved into a directory of names with an alphabetical listing andthe panel and line number of each name. Ironically, the leadership of North Vietnam came to a similar conclusion: they had to inflict enough casualties on Americans to end support for the war on the U.S. homefront and force a withdrawal before the U.S. could build up sufficient numbers of men and material to defeat them. Names of all who died in the war or . The design competition also needed to be able to attract design competitors.. [] Over the past two months, art mullahs of every description have begun a holy war against the addition of [Harts] statue.8. Far from being a fait accompli, amassing the public will to support this new agenda took real work. On March 5, 1975, the NVA invaded again. 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. In fact, throughout the 1970s, there was little political impetus on any front to address these shortcomings. After 25 years, the way in which visitors have embraced and cherished this work has been a great gift to me, she wrote in the program for the 25th anniversary ceremony. 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. In a February 27, 1968, broadcast he summed up what he had found during his return trip to the war zone. It will be a better memorial if its not entirely understood at first. On January 21, 1970, Jan Scruggs was having his morning cup of coffee, but he was far from his kitchen table at home. The task groups proved effective, as described by John Woods, who jointed as a key advisor. On June 11, 1963, an elderly Buddhist monk named Thich Quang Duc sat down in the street in front of a pagoda in Saigon to protest Diems policies. She greeted each visitor in a regal fashion, wearing a dressing gown, perfect makeup, and beautiful shoes that curled up at the toes. We expect them to do the work of history writing, to draw single comprehensible narratives out of a Gorgons nest of individual, often contradictory, experiences. Ibid. Veterans frequently found themselves denying their time in Vietnam, never mentioning their service to new friends and acquaintances for fear of the reactions it might elicit. They serve as testaments to lives lost, as repositories of grief, and to facilitate processes of mourning. On the second day, the jury examined the designs together, walking the many aisles and stopping at each of the 232 designs that had been flagged by one or more of the jurors, pausing to discuss each design that had been noted. 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. Sturken, 125. The series of events began on Wednesday, November 10, 1982, and culminated with a service at the National Cathedral on Sunday, November14. 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. . Experience the evolution of the Vietnam Wall controversy by reading through a chronological list of documents divided into five rounds: Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs initiates a hard-fought battle to build a Vietnam War Memorial, finally convincing Congress to appropriate land for a memorial that would be built with public funds. The administration was caught by surprise, however, when Diem was murdered during the coup, which was led by General Duong Van Minh. 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. On the other side were the veterans and their self-appointed spokesmen, politicians such as Webb and James Watt (Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan), and social conservatives such as Pat Buchanan. Soldiers wounded, another 72 . New York Close Up artist Dan Herschlein, and professor, Chad Laird, discuss the intersection of contemporary art, film and horror. Tour Washington D.C.'s Arlington National Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknowns, and Vietnam Veterans Memorial, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vietnam-Veterans-Memorial, How Stuff Works - History - Vietnam Veterans Memorial, National Park Service - Vietnam Veterans Memorial. His reasoning was that a complete mess would make it tough to stop construction. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a tribute to the dead of the United States ' longest, most unpopular, and least successful war. No American air strikes came to aid the overstretched South Vietnamese, despite Nixons earlier assurances to Thieu. They werent nice. The Best Answer To The Question Why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial? The design aroused a great deal of controversy, reflecting the lack of resolution of the national conflicts over the war as well as the lack of consensus over what constituted an appropriate memorial at the end of the 20th century. Some 80,000 Vietnamese from the south had moved to the north after the Geneva Agreements were signed. Why was Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial initially controversial? North Vietnam spent two years rebuilding its military; South Vietnam was hamstrung in its responses by a fear the U.S. Congress would cut off all aid if it took military action against communist buildup. Despite the stated wishes of the VVMF, Lins design proved instantaneously divisive. An author, teacher, and lecturer, Spreiregen had written the authoritative book on design competitions. 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. By the end of the first afternoon, one of the jurors, Harry Weese, returned to our impromptu conference lounge and told me, Paul, there are two designs out there that could do it.. I remind all of you of Martin Luther King Jr., who fought for justice for all Americans. The whole week was extremely emotional, Becky Scruggs remembered. 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. The ceasefire allowed Nixon to declare peace with honor, but no provisions existed for enforcing the terms of the accords. Why reinforce the bourgeoisies pathetic illusions? Once there was no more room for conflictthe memorials form, upon dedication, was no longer negotiablethe front in this culture war moved elsewhere. Architectural drawings and a one-page written summary, 1980 or 1981. 3) It provoked antiwar sentiment. Because Warner was from Virginia and Mathias from Maryland, the two had worked together on many regional issues. Scruggs took two weeks off from his job at the Department of Labor to develop the idea further. The three of them had different strengths, Healy explained. The design aroused a great deal of controversy, reflecting the lack of resolution of the national conflicts over the war as well as the lack of consensus over what constituted an appropriate memorial at the end of the 20th century. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund | 3033 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300 | Arlington VA 22201 | 202.393.0090 These mass-media fictions enabled the very real neglect of veterans by the institutions tasked with tending to their needs. Under those agreements, Cambodia and Laoswhich had been part of the French colonyreceived their independence. . North and South Vietnam were combined into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976. CBS evening news anchor Walter Cronkite returned to Vietnam to see for himself what was happening. With the site approved, VVMF scrambled to address the issues of what the Memorial would look like and who would design it. He had been a war correspondent during World War II and had reported from Vietnam during Americas early involvement. Rather, by honoring those who sacrificed, we hope to provide a symbol of national unity and reconciliation.1. Black walls, the universal color of shame and sorrow and degradation. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Credit: In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) . Healing meant many things to many people. On one side were the proponents of Lins memorials, defined in the media and the public imagination as Wolfes elitist art mullahs, draft dodgers, the future New Leftists, and, of course, followers of Jane Fonda (infamously dubbed Hanoi Jane after a trip to North Vietnam, during which she made statements condemning the U.S. military). It was World War II and her family lived in Nam Dinh, an industrial city and military target on the north coast of Vietnam. The purpose of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was to honor all who had served, with a special tribute their names engraved for those who did not return. In late spring 1969, American and South . Daniel Abramson, Maya Lin and the 1960s: Monuments, Time Lines, and Minimalism, Critical Inquiry 22, no. By endowing memorials with the ability to accomplish these tasks, we bestow them with an extraordinary amount of power and authority. 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. Every day, park rangers collect and tag the items, noting which wall panel each item was left beneath. North Vietnamese officers, after the war, said the only thing they feared was an American-led invasion of the north, but the U.S. was not going to risk starting World War III, and at the time that seemed to loom as a distinct possibility. 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. Lin and VVMF eventually selectedthe Cooper-Lecky Partnership as the architect-of-record, with Lin as the projects design consultant. Earlier, in March 1968, the Americal Division had been involved in what became known as the My Lai Massacre, in which over 100 men, women and children were killed. 8. Its mere existence would be societal recognition that their sacrifices were honorable rather than dishonorable. That would have made any negotiation with Ho politically ticklish. Holding a competition is like launching a rocket. Within months after he recovered from his wounds and returned to his unit, the American public was learning the details of the events at My Lai. One day in October 1969, fifteen members of the Americal Division wore black armbands while they were on patrol, the symbol antiwar protestors wore in the states. But, say those opposed, the men represent the women, the men represent all soldiers . It was the most thoughtful and thorough discussion of design that I have ever heard, and I have heard many, he recalled. But if the challenges seemed insurmountable, no one expressed any fears. Most importantly, they needed to navigate the channels of government authorizations and approvals. 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. Reagans 1981 inaugural speech exemplified the political rhetoric used by his administration to promote his vision to the American public. In 2009 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund assumed responsibility for the maintenance of the site. Out of the nearly fifteen hundred entries in the competition, the eight jurors of the selection committee unanimously chose Maya Lins design on May 6, 1981. They treated the moms the same as they treated the vets. Cambodia Because of this, Mathias appointed her to manage the details and to work with Scruggs, Doubek, and Wheeler on the legislation for the memorial. Maya Lin, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 198182. Unlike previous wars, where only still images or short movie newsreels were available for conveying images, this was Americas first television war. Some felt that the money to build a memorial could be better spent delivering the many services veterans needed. For the first time, MACV worked with South Vietnams government to create annual plans. 1) it commemorated an unpopular war. 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 . All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.12. The chief design criteria were that the memorial be 1) reflective and contemplative in character; 2) be harmonious with its site and environment, 3) make no political statement about the war itself, and 4) contain the names of all who died or remained missing. It was designed by American architect Maya Lin. This began a series of destabilizing changes in government leadership. Our country needed something symbolic to help heal our wounds.. For weeks, heated discussions took place around the topic of who should be part of the design jury. They set their sights in support of the clear, simple vision Scruggs outlined:to honor the warrior and not the war. As they forged a partnership with Mathias and his staff, VVMF also set out to establish other key relationships. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial stands as a symbol of America's honor and recognition of the men and women who served and sacrificed their lives in the Vietnam War. The reputation of the jurors was important to attract the best designers and to minimize second guessing by the Federal approval bodies. Popular dark tourism attractions include Auschwitz, Chernobyl and Ground Zero. Today, The Wall continues to be the most-visited memorial on the National Mall, attracting more than five million people each year. Peter Walker and Michael Arad. And none of them discussed their own personal feelings or political views regarding the war. 4: The Artistic Controversy, 3/1982-11/1985 >>>>> 1988. Instead, the memorial became a dividing line between factions both real and imagined. How should we remember a war that we "lost"? This lends a sense of personal intimacy in a public space which helps create a sense of connection to the memorial. Scruggs and Doubek began having regular meetings with John P. Wheeler, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School. It was a direct result of the First Indochina War (1946-1954) between France, which claimed Vietnam as a colony, and the communist forces then known as Viet Minh. In 1993 the Vietnam Womens Memorial was unveiled a short distance from the wall. At 21 and still an undergraduate, Linconceived her design as creating a park within a park a quiet protected place unto itself, yet harmonious with the overall plan of Constitution Gardens. The military dog tags, flowers, war medals, photographs, and even favorite toys left behind aid the healing process. The walls are inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 men and women . Revisiting the terms of this conflict not only provides insight into how and why visual art came to be so politicized in the 1980s, but also sheds light on the debates of our present historical moment, which, in many ways, parallel the debates of that period regarding the social purpose of art. Ibid. Why was the Vietnam women's memorial so significant? On February 7, 1965, the U.S. Air Force began bombing selected sites in North Vietnam. Their military experience meant they had contacts far and wide, at all levels of all professions, within government and the private sector.
why was the vietnam war memorial so controversial?
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