The Vietnam War Memorial

The Vietnam War Memorial, like the war it memorializes, was initially steeped in controversy. It was called unemotional and ‘a black gash of shame’. Criticism was leveled at the artist for her being of Asian extraction. Like the Vietnam War, Americans gradually began to see the other side of the coin and it is now one of America’s most revered art pieces. It is comprised of black granite panels set into ground so that the viewer literally walks into the piece. On the panel is carved the names of the 58,000 plus American war dead (Sands).

It is a part of the landscape by design. Lin said, “I didn’t want to destroy a living park. You use the landscape. You don’t fight with it,” (greatbuildings.com).  A companion piece, a statue of American warriors, war weary and in battle dress was erected at the site. I think the memorial is a moving piece of art, fraught with symbolism that is more apparent when visiting it than it can ever be from photos or descriptions. It is the duty of any nation that sends its young men into combat to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate for their country.

I think that while hostilities are ongoing and the deaths are mounting, however, the tribute should take a form different from a cold memorial. I think the man who sent them to the war zone should read us the names of each fallen warrior at the close of day and explain how that warrior died. If he refuses, then each day in the House of Representatives the names should be read, and those names then be carried to the White House.

The purpose of a war memorial is not always the same for every war and for every cause. It can be a tribute to the fallen dead in a war that was waged for survival. It can be a piece of propaganda for a war that had no business being waged. It can be designed and erected as a balm to heal the scars of a bitter and divisive conflict. Vietnam divided our nation and nearly brought us into open rebellion with the government that refused to listen to the will of the people.

The veterans of the Vietnam War seem to be flooded with memories when they confront the names of fallen comrades whose names are engraved in the polished black granite. Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem, Facing It, described the feeling he had of being back in the war, symbolically being inside the memorial itself. He could see the explosion that killed his friend by reading the man’s name on the wall. “I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby trap’s white flash,” (lines 16-17), he says in the poem. At Santa Monica Beach near Los Angeles every Sunday a local chapter of the Veterans for Peace erects a temporary memorial to the fallen dead of the Iraq War (Veterans For Peace).

It is called Arlington West for the Arlington National Cemetery in the east.  It is similar to and different from the Vietnam War Memorial. It has a list of fallen Americans as a tribute to them but also it memorializes the dead Iraqis, which the Vietnam Wall does not do for the fallen Vietnamese. Volunteers erect rows of crosses and symbolic flag draped coffins. It is more performance art than a permanent fixture but still emotionally moving, particularly to the families of the dead. Visiting there is a way to express the grief and frustration the same as at the Vietnam Wall. It shows that there is not a single way to create a memorial any more than there a single way to create art. There are different ways to move people.

The Vietnam Wall is a vital robust and moving tribute to a nasty war. It has helped to heal a divided nation and bring closure. The Arlington West project is for an ongoing war and can be seen as a protest of that war as much as a memorial to the dead. The idea of requiring the people who send men off to war to read the names of the dead seems to be fitting. They would be forced to see the toll they are taking at least in terms of numbers and perhaps put a face on the dead. For now they are simply statistics.

Bibliography

• Greatbuildings.com  2007  Viet Nam Veterans Memorial Retrieved 4-3-07
• From:http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial.html
• Komunyakaa, Y. Facing It    HERE INSERT THE FOLLOWING: NAME OF TEXT BOOK, CITY OF PUBLICATION FOLLOWED BY COLON, THEN NAME OF PUBLISHER AND THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION
• Sands, K.  Jack Magazine  Maya Lin’s Wall: A Tribute to Americans Retrieved 4-
• 3-07 from:  http://www.jackmagazine.com/issue9/essayksands.html
• Veterans For Peace   4-07  Arlington West Memorial Santa Monica Retrieved
• 4-3-07 from: http://www.arlingtonwestsantamonica.org/