Viet Nam Memorial

The Viet Nam Memorial, officially the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is located on the National Mall in Washington DC, not far from the Lincoln Memorial. It consists of three parts, the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall, the Three Soldiers statue, and the Vietnam Women’s Memorial. The three-part memorial honors those men and women who served honorably during the Vietnam conflict, which involved United States troops between 1957 and 1975, especially those individuals who lost their lives during the war. The Memorial is administered and maintained by the U.S. National park Service and draws over three million visitors annually. It is one of the most visited attractions in Washington DC.

The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Wall

The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial was first conceived in 1978, three years after the Vietnam conflict ended, and was created using over $8.4 million in private donations. Maya Ying Lin, at the time a 21 year old Ohio University student, was unanimously selected from a field of over 1400 entries. Initially, the Wall was controversial, with some veterans feeling the wall was too modern and lacked the elements of a traditional war monument. The controversy, however, has died down and most Americans have come to admire the Memorial. The Wall was dedicated in November, 1982 and marked by a march to the site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans.

Constructed of two polished, black granite walls, The Memorial Wall, designed by Maya Ying Lin, is 246 feet 9 inches long and is inscribed with the names of those servicemen and women who died during the Vietnam conflict. The names are listed in chronological order, beginning in 1959 and continuing until 1975. In all, there are 58,249 names on the Wall, including eight women and approximately 1200 men listed as missing. The Wall is sunken, with the top of the memorial flush with the ground and designed so that onlookers are reflected on the surface of the memorial, combining the present and the past. The simple memorial is an elegant, somber, and awe-inspiring tribute to this tumultuous time in American history.

The Three Soldiers Statue, located a short distance away from the Wall, was added in 1984 as a more traditional component to the Viet Nam Memorial. Designed by Frederick Hart, it depicts three servicemen, identifiable as Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic. The statue is positioned so that the soldiers appear to be looking solemnly at the names of their fallen comrades on the Wall.

The last portion of the Viet Nam Memorial to be added, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial commemorates the over 265,000 women who served in Vietnam, most of them nurses. The bronze statue, designed by Glenna Goodacre, was dedicated in 1993 and shows three women tending a wounded soldier. It is located a short distance from the Wall, north of the Reflecting Pool.

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