The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is a black granite wall with over 58,000 engraved names of American casualties of the Vietnam War. Designed by Maya Lin, it is complemented by two statues honoring all who served. Visitors leave tokens of remembrance.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is a dark black granite wall that bears the names of American men and women who were casualties of the Vietnam War. Its V shape has one leg pointing towards the Lincoln Memorial and the other leg pointing towards the Washington Monument. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has often been ranked among the most popular structures in the United States (USA).
In the 1970s, a group of U.S. veterans began conceiving, planning, and raising funds for a memorial to Vietnam Veterans. After a design competition garnered entries from more than a thousand architects, landscape designers and artists from across the United States, a winning entry was chosen by Maya Lin, then a student at Yale University. Lin’s concept was realized after the wall was installed and completed in 1982.
Each of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial’s two 246.75-foot-long (approximately 75.2 meters) walls contain the engraved names of those who were killed in the arena of the Vietnam War. The wall is 10.1 feet (about 3.1 meters) high at its highest points with a slope of only 8 inches (about 20.32 cm) at its lowest points. More than 58,000 names are inscribed on the memorial, also known simply as ‘The Wall’.
Names appear in order from earliest to most recent deaths and include approximately 1,200 marked as Missing in Action (MIA) or Prisoners of War (POW). A system of letters and numbers helps visitors find specific names, and visitors often track down these engraved names of family and friends on paper. Many visitors also leave tokens of their love – letters and poems, medals received from the deceased, photos and other mementos – on the site. These items are collected and stored as a separate part of the memorial.
Although the main portion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is widely considered to be the Wall, two complementary pieces added near the site are meant to honor all the men and women who served in the Vietnam War. Three Servicemen, a bronze statue by Frederick E. Hart, includes three male soldiers and was added to the memorial site in 1984; the Vietnam Womens Memorial, a sculpture by Glenna Goodacre, was installed in 1993 and depicts three women and a wounded soldier in the war zone.
Of the commentary, controversy and acclaim surrounding the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, for many the visual gravity of the number of American lives lost in the war is undeniable. Rows and rows of names carved into the memorial wall rest in stone in a park-like atmosphere. Millions of visitors each year pay their respects to the deceased and reflect on the costs and rewards of such a huge loss of life.
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