Vietnam War Memorial

No war memorial so acutely touches the heart of the matter: These were men; they had names, and they died in a war. Their names can be touched as the ultimate reality they once lived. Not the flag raising at Iwo Jima, not the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, not even the battleground at Gettysburg--none of these come close to saying what needed and needs to be said. The one who said it so perfectly is Maya Yang Lin, the 21-year-old architectural student who created the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.

A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) to create a plaque honoring Vietnam veterans who died during peacetime from service-related injuries, such as exposure to Agent Orange or post-traumatic stress syndrome, won unanimous approval in the Senate on Thursday. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) had drafted a similar bill but decided to move Gallegly's bill instead so it could pass before Memorial Day. Gallegly's bill was approved by the House on May 9.

Mayor Frank Fry Jr. said he is not deterred by the recent controversy over the planned Vietnam War memorial and he said he hopes to unveil the statue at a location yet to be determined in September. A ceremonial groundbreaking scheduled for April 29 at the Civic Center was canceled and a memorial committee member representing veterans of the former South Vietnam in Southern California resigned in early April.

After four years of redesign, fund-raising and political bickering, the Westminster City Council unanimously approved a Vietnam War memorial for the Civic Center. "It's been a long time coming, longer than it should have been, but it will be special," said Councilman Frank Fry, a World War II veteran who proposed the project. The bronze memorial--12 feet tall on a 5-foot-high concrete base--will show two soldiers, one American and one Vietnamese, standing side by side and surrounded by flags.

On a day when thousands gathered in Westminster's Little Saigon to celebrate Tet, the start of the lunar new year, a veterans group urged planners of a Vietnam War memorial to fly both the U.S. flag and that of the former Republic of Vietnam. "There are 358,000 reasons to fly both," said John Lynch, president of the Orange County chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, referring to the 58,000 U.S. and 300,000 South Vietnamese soldiers who died in the war.

Re: "NEA Funding Fight Heats Up" (June 27): So, Rep. Robert Livingston (R-La.) decries the NEA as "elitist" and suggests that those wealthy actors who speak in favor of NEA funding could fund it themselves. Great idea! And while we're at it, why spend tax dollars on libraries, with so many elitist books? Rich writers could pay for them! Rich historians could fund the Smithsonian! And why didn't we think to ask rich war veterans to pay for the Vietnam War Memorial? NEA opponents evidently feel they shouldn't have to pay for any government service they don't like or use, and they sound so self-righteous while trying to lead us all down such a very slippery slope.

While Christopher Knight's commentary on the proposed World War II memorial being placed on the site of the present Rainbow Pool exposes some of the politics that may have played into the site selection process (what a shocker), his article has more invective and hyperbole than rational thought on why it's a bad location for the memorial ("Damage to a Prime Piece of Real Estate," July 19). Anyone who has walked the length of the National Mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial knows what a lonely, empty space of land it is. The proposed WWII memorial is aesthetically well-suited to the location and vice versa, and is in keeping with the existing Washington architecture (unlike the Vietnam War Memorial, which nonetheless has become a cultural touchstone cherished by the public and art critics alike)

She arrived in the United States from Czechoslovakia on vacation in 1981 and never returned home, her disdain for communism outweighing her love for her native land. Although barely an adult, Veronika Derugin had said goodbye to her parents and three brothers, knowing, but not telling them, that she would stay "in this land of freedom and opportunity."

For some, the meetings have raised long-buried resentment and bitterness. For others, they have been a time of cleansing and of healing. And for a few, they've been the first time in nearly 20 years to talk about the Vietnam War. The Pasadena Vietnam War Memorial Committee, composed of about 40 city employees who served in the Vietnam War, has been working to find a site, design and money for a Vietnam War memorial in Pasadena for more than a year.

A unique Vietnam War memorial at Huntington Beach High School is a year old, but unlike the shrine-like wall in Washington, this commemoration to the war dead is not having the impact that the teacher who inspired it had hoped. A few students still praise the idea and say the memorial is important to young people on campus. During a recent noon break, for instance, Shadd Holyfield, a 16-year-old sophomore, stood in front of the memorial and said he found it meaningful.