Vietnam Memorial

My visit to the Vietnam Memorial and 9/11 Memorial were very emotional for me. Particularly the Vietnam Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial felt more personal to me. Unlike the 9/11 Memorial, where the names of the dead were displayed for everyone to see, the Vietnam Memorial included names as well as letters written by the soldiers. Those excerpts from those letters helped me see them as human beings, as someone to whom I could relate. It made me think what their lives were like in Vietnam, always on the alert, knowing they could die at any moment. The 9/11 Memorial on the other hand, although extremely tragic, was more impersonal to me, maybe because I never lost anyone in the attack, or because I was never in the country at the time.

Another reason the Vietnam Memorial had a greater emotional impact on me was because of its isolation. The 9/11 Memorial as turned into a tourist spot. I saw far too many people taking “selfies” and striking ridiculous poses at so solemn a site. It was disrespectful. Therefore, It was hard to become emotionally connected to that place. The Vietnam Memorial, on the other hand, was far removed from the more traditional tourist locations. Our class made up the majority of the visitors at that time. Being that it was so empty, I had no problem being emotionally invested at that place.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to both sites. By enjoy I don’t mean I had a jolly good time. I enjoyed it in the sense that I was able to appreciate the location, and the people being remembered at both sites. Visiting both those sites, I felt overwhelmed by what had happened, both on U.S. soil, and on Vietnamese soil.