Memorial Wall Research Paper

Words: 541
Pages: 3

Are we disgracing or honoring our Vietnam Veterans? The Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall has been one of controversy due to its design and structure. Maya Ying Lin, a senior at Yale University, decided to enter the contest to come up with a design for the $7million monument that was to honor our Vietnam Veterans. Many feel the design is inappropriate. My opinion is the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial Wall is a beautiful tribute, honoring the 57,692 soldiers, who lost their lives fighting this horrible war. The design is appropriate and I see nothing disgraceful about the memorial. As Maya Ying Lin stated in her letter to the editor of The New York Times, “the essence of the design is about the time sequence, which has the dates of the first and last deaths meeting at the intersection of these walls.” She said it is a “segment in time, meant to recognize all those who served during this war and to give special recognition to those who will never return from it.”

Ms. Lin’s goal was to draw passers-by to the monument, which is why she decided to make it into a V-shape, and
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Yet, Phyllis S. Corbitt, the wife of a U.S. Air Force officer who has been missing in Vietnam since 1967, says it is “a design that has been praised for its eloquence, dignity and nobility.” Mr. Carhart also feels the memorial will be nothing but a “black hole in the ground”. He feels the symbolization of the war memorial is more of an appropriate statement of the political war the country was going through and not an appropriate memorial to honor our Veterans’ who died. However, Ms. Corbitt states, “the memorial is a subtle yet powerful statement, honoring the memory of those who were lost and recognizing the sacrifices of all who served in a war, in which there was neither victor nor