A Speech on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial(The Controversy and the Healing Process of a Tragic War)
History is a critical component of every nation. Let’s face it, a country that forgets its past has no future. The Vietnam War is the longest war since the World Wars that lasted between 1955 and 1975. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built beginning from 1979, developing as an idea from one of the Veterans who left the war wounded, Jan C. Scruggs. According to The History, around 3 million Americans had served in the war, with many left wounded through the conflict both physically and emotionally. This was a long war that lasted for two decades, and the exhaustion of the American people constrained the political players from addressing means to honor those who put their lives on the line. Despite efforts by external players and the congress’ allocation of the land on which the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial stands, its development wasn’t a worthy memory for the bravery of the veterans who died in the war. It is, however, in my opinion, that history has judged the entire controversy as a representation of the war as it was, the losses, and the societal opposition of it.
Jan Scruggs developed as an activist who spent his own money to form a foundation for the Vietnam Veterans before the Congress bought up the idea, and the government reserved three acres for the memorial. All the donations were raised from the private sector as Jan Scruggs activism raised awareness on the veterans who underwent serious traumatic experience and suffered PTSD in the post-war period. The memorial sought to establish a healing process for the veterans as a form of closure for their experiences and respect for those who gave their lives for the nation. The big question, however, is whether that honor was ever accorded the brave men who fought for the flag of the United States of America.
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One of the most significant controversies that emerged concerning the memorial building was the architect who designed it. The funding was limited, and thus a national competition was held for the design of the memorial attracting over 1400 submissions. The choice for Lin’s proposal, a senior at Yale University, aroused a vast amount of controversy not just for his design but lack of a consensus across the American population on what would represent the entire event of a long war. A resolution was found in November 1982, and the memorial was built, but still left many questions and puzzles on the government’s commitment to honor the veterans and the historical representation of the political divide during the war.
Politics during the cold war period and the entirety of the Vietnam War characterized a sociopolitical environment as opposed to the war and its justifications. By the end of the war, many held opinions of its outcome as tragic rather than triumphant and wondered how a young child in Maya Lin could represent all the emotions and feelings of the fallen soldiers. The design involved a granite wall inscribed with the names of all the soldiers who died in the war, and many termed it as a “black gash of shame” (PRI.org, “Here’s How a Controversial Work Of Art Healed America after Vietnam”). The opposition for many was an element of “anti-war” ideologies; to others was an opposition to the design selection of a young Asian-American woman. The societal perspective has, however, adopted the memorial, and as established by Doubek (pg1) and Corbin (pg70), all its features, including the black granite wall and the statue, have become cultural icons that symbolize the war in the modern-day society.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has evolved into a significant representation of American history, and its controversy adds more to this significance. The 1970s saw a steady increase in globalization and migrations that established the current diversity in the US. The opposition of the memorial design based on the designer’s race is a critical indicator of the development of present American diversity. The government’s failure to develop a memorial and the societal division on the memorial is a manifestation of the societal division on the war and taxpayers’ exhaustion in funding the war. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a historical center that will remain inscribed with the ones lost in the war. It depicts the post-world war II wars and even inspired the design of the World Trade Center bombing. In the end, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial represents a critical part of American history, and only by it can the United States as a country face its future.
Works Cited
“6 Things You May Not Know About The Vietnam Veterans Memorial.” HISTORY, 2012, https://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-vietnam-veterans-memorial.
“Here’s How A Controversial Work Of Art Healed America After Vietnam.” Public Radio International, 2013, https://www.pri.org/stories/2013-10-06/heres-how-controversial-work-art-healed-america-after-vietnam. Accessed 10 Mar 2020.
Corbin, Julianne. “Memory and Form: An Analysis of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.” Managing Editor (2016): 66.
Doubek, Robert W. Creating the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Inside Story. McFarland, 2015.
