The Vietnam Veterans

Memorial and its Creator

 

 

 

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Maya Lin

          Maya Ying Lin was born in 1959 in Athens, Ohio.  Maya’s parents had fled Mao’s communist regime and settled in Athens in 1959.  Her late father was a ceramicist and Dean of Fine Arts at Ohio University, and her mother, now retired, taught literature at the college.  At the age of 21, while still an undergraduate student at Yale University, Maya sent her design into the competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be built in Washington D.C.  She had entered the competition as an assignment for a funeral architecture class¹.  When she sent it in Maya says she “knew full well that my design wouldn’t be chosen because it was not a politically glorified statement about war.  That it focused only on the individual losses and the sufferings⁵.”  However, Maya’s design was chosen over 1,421 other entries by an eight member jury of architects and sculptors².

 

 

 

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The Design Itself

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was founded by Jan Scruggs, who served in Vietnam (in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade) from 1969-1970 as an infantry corporal².  He felt the need to honor all those who gave their lives fighting in the war, however he didn’t know exactly what the memorial should look like.  At first he pictured an obelisk, but then he realized that this wouldn’t be very practical because an obelisk is very tall and no one would be able to read the names at the top.  He then decided that he would get someone else to design the memorial, because he and his colleagues had no knowledge of architectural design.  So he came up with the idea of making the search for a design a competition to find the best one⁵.  The competition was to be a nationwide competition open to anyone who would submit a design and an essay.  Prizes worth $50,000 were to be awarded to the winning design².

 

 

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Maya’s design, which is a piece of visually stunning art itself, "is welcoming in its open-ended, book-like form, and yet disconcerting to those who realize that to read the names is to stand below the horizon - six feet under - conversing in the space of the dead⁴."  "As you descend the gradual path along the wall and reach the vertex, you realize that one wing of the black wall points straight at the tall, white Washington Monument a mile or so off, and the other at the Lincoln Memorial, visible through a screen of trees about 600 feet away. In making this descent you feel you're entering a cloistered space, set off from the busy surroundings. Streets and skylines disappear to leave you alone with the wall and its names."  Next to each name inscribed in the granite is either a diamond, if the person was killed in action or a cross if the person is missing in action.  "Once you reach the vertex, as you pass the angle and begin to climb, you feel yourself emerging again into the world of noise and light after a meditative experience³."  The list starts and ends at the vertex, beginning at the date 1959 (with first two names listed from the date of July 8, 1959) and the inscription (IN HONOR OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES WHO SERVED IN THE VIETNAM WAR. THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES AND OF THOSE WHO REMAIN MISSING ARE INSCRIBED IN THE ORDER THEY WERE TAKEN FROM US.)  It then proceeds in chronological order, according to the date of casualty, within each day the names are alphabetized².

In coming up with this design Maya knew she had to ask herself “What is a memorial’s purpose in the 20^th century.”  She wanted this memorial to be special because she knew of the great human loss.  She wanted to show that, “The cost of war is these individuals and we have to remember them first.”  Maya wanted the visitors of the memorial to feel like they were alone and that they were at one with the individuals on the wall.  She wanted them to be able to accept death, because “It’s only when you can accept the pain; it’s only when you can accept the death can you then overcome it⁵.”

 

 

 

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Response

When the design was first revealed to the public many people found it visually stunning.  Grady Clay, one of the jury members judging the competition, said “The longer we looked at the design, the deeper we saw into it and the more profound the statement was.  The longer I looked the more convinced I was that it was unquestionable the one⁵.”  However, practically every detail about the wall was debated.  Lin knew that the journey ahead of her would be hard and that she undoubtedly would be the center of criticism, because not only was she not a Veteran but she was Asian.  Some people made racial jokes and comments toward Lin on the subject.  A small group of veterans even said that the wall was an ugly black scar in the earth reminding them every time of the pain and suffering⁵.  Lin chose black granite because when polished, it is reflective.  But opponents objected².  Eventually peace was made, and to appease those who had problems with the wall, a flag and statue were put near the wall, in the park¹.

 

 

 

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Click here for the Bibliography Page

 

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Email me at cmg2188@sbcglobal.net