Maya Lin Vietnam War Memorial
Although controversial in its inception, Maya Lin 's Vietnam War Memorial adequately fulfills the vision of Jan Scruggs, who returned home wounded from the conflict in Southeast Asia at the age of 19, for a monument to his fallen comrades in arms that would "provide a symbol of acknowledgement of the courage, sacrifice, and devotion to duty of those who were among the nation 's finest youth."1
Lin 's work, unlike most previous military monuments, rejects the emphasis on heroics in favor of a poignant, contemplative, apolitical design which conveys an almost unbearable sense of loss. Simple, graceful, and abstract, the design specified two 246.75 foot long walls of polished black southern India granite, set below grade and connected at a 125 degree angle.2 Each segment of the wall is composed of 70 panels. At their intersection, the walls are 10.1 feet high and they taper down to a height of 8 inches at their extremities.3 The largest panels have 137 lines of names.4 The smallest panels have just one line. Each line consists of five names, which were sandblasted into the polished surface by hand, rather than cut into it with machine tools.5 Currently, the monument wall lists the names of 58,175 members of the armed forces who were confirmed killed or listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War.6
Although the complete listing of the names of those killed in action or missing in action, the horizontality, reflectivity, and subdued, un-heroic and apolitical tone were more or less mandated by the memorial 's sponsors, Lin 's one genuine innovation was to list the dead and missing chronologically, rather than alphabetically, that latter being the accepted norm in military monuments. Lin quotes the purpose of the memorial:
"The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a geode,I envision it not as an object inserted in the earth but as part of the earth,a work formed an interface between the world of light and the quieter world beyond the names."7
The
Lin 's work, unlike most previous military monuments, rejects the emphasis on heroics in favor of a poignant, contemplative, apolitical design which conveys an almost unbearable sense of loss. Simple, graceful, and abstract, the design specified two 246.75 foot long walls of polished black southern India granite, set below grade and connected at a 125 degree angle.2 Each segment of the wall is composed of 70 panels. At their intersection, the walls are 10.1 feet high and they taper down to a height of 8 inches at their extremities.3 The largest panels have 137 lines of names.4 The smallest panels have just one line. Each line consists of five names, which were sandblasted into the polished surface by hand, rather than cut into it with machine tools.5 Currently, the monument wall lists the names of 58,175 members of the armed forces who were confirmed killed or listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War.6
Although the complete listing of the names of those killed in action or missing in action, the horizontality, reflectivity, and subdued, un-heroic and apolitical tone were more or less mandated by the memorial 's sponsors, Lin 's one genuine innovation was to list the dead and missing chronologically, rather than alphabetically, that latter being the accepted norm in military monuments. Lin quotes the purpose of the memorial:
"The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a geode,I envision it not as an object inserted in the earth but as part of the earth,a work formed an interface between the world of light and the quieter world beyond the names."7
The
Bibliography: Scruggs, Jan C. and Swerdlow, Joe L. To Heal a Nation. Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1985. Warner, John " Memorial Bills, FDCH Congressional Testimony, June 3, 2003." Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks