The Vietnam Memorial Analysis

The establishment of the Vietnam Memorial consisted of an abundance of controversy both in the creation and building process because of the two opposition groups that were in play during the war. In "Never Again: A Vietnam Syndrome in American Foreign Policy", Patrick Hagopian analyzes how various factions congregated due to either support or opposition of the Vietnam War. As the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C was created, a vast majority of individuals, verbally protested back and forth against each other, and neither of the two groups were either right or wrong. Jack Smith, a psychologist, noted that "everyone blamed everyone else for what had gone wrong. Military men blame policy makers, right-wingers blame the pinkos and media and protesters,
In the article, “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Commemorating a Difficult Past”, Wagner and Schwartz state three issues that arise when a memorial will be constructed. “(1) the social problems of fixing painful parts of the past (a military defeat, a generation of unredeemed veterans) in the public consciousness, (2) the political problem of commemorating an event for which there is no national consensus, and (3) the cultural problem of working through and against traditional expectations about the war memorial genre” (Wagner and Schwartz). As a group, Americans had to cooperate with one another to determine what the memorial would symbolize. Even though this process sounds simple, it is the opposite because every individual views the Vietnam War in a different form. With no guidelines, the masses had to decide what the significance of the memorial would be and to many the memorial would recognize the troops that died in combat, while to others the memorial would demonstrate a lesson to avoid in the
The Vietnam Memorials to this day have various interpretations that change among individuals. For example, when seeing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. people feel sorrow, anger, pain and some even feel shame for the U.S. having been part of a war that meant absolutely nothing to the American public. On the other hand the Three Servicemen Memorial constructs a notion of loyalty and dependence on your partner or team. Both memorials were created for the remembrance of the Vietnam War, yet they both create different types of emotions. By the designers not having any influence on the way that individuals view these memorials, a wide array of opinions rise and that is normal because no individual will have the same thinking as someone else. The memorials themselves will create a type of collective memory that individuals will obtain by viewing these memorials. Even if they do not agree with their meaning, just by seeing these memorials, the memory of the Vietnam War becomes a part of us and our