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Pros And Cons Of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

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Concept, Controversy, and Commemoration:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

No war in American history not fought on American soil can claim to have as big an impact on America as a whole than the Vietnam War. The social and political divisions caused by the war changed America as a nation and especially changed those who fought in it. Despite the sacrifices of these veterans, both those who returned and those who did not, Americans on both sides forgot or even vilified those who fought, either as losers or as tokens of an unjust war. To remedy this problem through reconciliation and honor those who died in Vietnam, a group of veterans campaigned to build a national memorial in Washington, D.C. From its original design to the present …show more content…

For many visitors, the memorial represents a sense of closeness between the dead and the living, especially in that the can see traces of our world - their faces, the sky and trees - reflected in the names of the dead. As described by Senator Charles Mathias, a strong supporter of the Memorial, “A location on the Mall is symbolically appropriate. We can all recall when the Mall was the battleground of opinion and dissent regarding America’s role in Vietnam. Its proximity to the Lincoln Memorial is also fitting, for not since the Civil War had this nation suffered wounds and divisions as grievous as those endured over Vietnam.” (Scruggs 18). The Vietnam Veterans Memorial points to the Lincoln memorial and the Washington Monument, as if to ask whether the war “was true to Lincoln’s justice and healing as well as Washington’s founding intentions, struggles against foreign tyrants, and military genius” (Griswold 82). The inclusion of the names of the names of all of the deceased in chronological order would read like an epic Greek poem, according to Maya Lin, as well as avoid making the memorial look like a telephone book, as she feared alphabetical listing would (Scruggs 78-79). The practice of leaving offerings (letters, dogtags, photos, birthday and Christmas cards, …show more content…

A representative for the Pentagon, whom the veterans thought would offer strong support for the memorial, essentially said, “Why should we build a memorial to losers?” (Scruggs 30). Some politicians and others agreed, calling the veterans “crybabies who should receive less from the government” (Scruggs 31). Many Americans, however, especially veterans and those who had lost loved ones in the war, strongly supported the memorial. Tens of thousands of letters thanking the Fund and offering support accompanied widely varying donations to the memorial, such as one that said, “The whole town turned out for the funeral for he was the only boy who died there from this small town - but there it ended. There is no recognition of his death anywhere so far as the town he grew up in is concerned.” (Scruggs 26). Some that supported the Memorial were even a part of those who had condemned the war - “I opposed the war. I marched (and prayed) for peace. I counseled C.O.s. But I will never, never forget what so many gave of what they had for what they believed. And many of these, tragically, were the best we had.” (Scruggs 27). To those at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund receiving the letters, both supporting and condemning, they showed equal amounts of the pain that ran deeply through America, and they began to work harder at their attempt to heal this

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