Above you can browse through photographs taken at the memorial, found on the travel guide at http://dc.about.com/od/monumentphotos/ss/VietnamMemPts.htm.
Here’s a link listen to an interview with Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam War Veteran and the President of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, as he discusses his experience visiting the memorial: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4669683
Here’s a link to listen to an interview with Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as she discusses the 25th anniversary of the memorial: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16246928
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC (Maya Lin, 1982) created much controversy because it questioned how the country should properly honor its fallen soldiers. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund held a contest for the design, chose Maya Lin’s plan. Critics opposed the plan because of its abstract nature and its likeliness to an open wound or gash in the ground.[1] Its location on the National Mall, with all of the other national monuments, constructed in the traditional sense of a memorial because of their height, forms, and color, put a lot of pressure on the design of the Vietnam memorial to live up to the country’s standard of memorialization. The emphasis of the memorial is more on the veterans and the dead soldiers rather than the war, which brings up the importance of heroism and sacrifice in American history.[2]
The memorial site is shaped like a V, and its path descends down a slight slope. Along the pathway is a black stone wall that grows taller as the path goes deeper down. The wall is reflective and lists the 58,000 names of the soldiers who died in the war. The reflective black surface acts as the mediator between the visitor and his or her memory. These elements work together to evoke memories in the visitors, as in the case of Jan Scruggs. Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam War Veteran as well as the President of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, had a very emotional interaction with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial because of his personal recollections of being in Vietnam. During an interview conducted by NPR at the memorial (the link to this interview can be accessed above), he was able to recall individual stories about recognizable names on the wall and the shakiness in his voice made it very clear that it was making him very emotional.[3] As he says each name out loud, he pauses as he recalls each of their stories. His memories of the violence and tragedies that occurred in Vietnam make his experience visiting the memorial unlike anyone else’s reaction to the space. A painting by Lee Teter entitled Vietnam Reflections (http://leeteter.com/) strongly demonstrates the experience of a veteran visiting the memorial. In the painting, the man extends his hand to the wall, and instead of an exact reflection of himself looking back, there is perhaps a younger version of himself surrounded by his fellow soldiers. Everyone sees some different when they look into the wall.
