November 13 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is Dedicated

This Day in History: 13 November 2020

 

13 November 1982

 

38 years ago, today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., after a march to its site by thousands of veterans who served in the conflict. The long-awaited memorial was a simple V-shaped black granite wall, that was inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict. Their names were arranged in order of death, not their rank, which was common in other memorials. It soon became one of the most visited memorials in the nation's capital. It drew together both those who fought and those who marched against the war, serving to promote national healing a decade after the conflict ended.

 

The designer of the memorial was Maya Lin, a Yale University architecture student who entered a nationwide competition to create a design for the monument. Lin was born in Ohio in 1959 and was the daughter to Chinese immigrants. Many veterans' groups were opposed to the winning design, as it lacked a standard memorial's heroic statutes and stirring words. However, a shift in public opinion occurred in the months after the memorial's dedication. Families of the dead and veterans visited the wall, seeking the names of their loved ones. Once the name was found, a private offering was usually left, from notes and flowers to dog tags and cans of beer.

 

Want to find out more about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Click here for more information, or here for more about Maya Lin.

September 4 - Announcement of Ho Chi Minh's Death

This Day in History: 4 September 2020 

 

4 September 1969 

 

51 years ago, today, the Vietnamese Radio Hanoi announced the death of Ho Chi Minh, who had died two days earlier. He suffered from heart failure at his home in Hanoi, and his body was later embalmed. They proclaimed that the National Liberation Front would halt military operations in the South for three days in mourning for Ho. He had been the spiritual leader for the communists in the Vietnam War since the earliest days of the struggle against France. The Chinese leaders assured the North Vietnamese of their continued support in the war against the United States, which was essential if the North Vietnamese wished to continue the war. 

 

Many in the United States hoped that the death of Ho would provide a new opportunity to achieve a negotiated settlement to the war in Vietnam, but this did not occur. The war would not end until 1975, when communist forces seized control of South Vietnam, and the county was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the next year. More than 3 million people were killed in the war, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese citizens. The effects of the war in the United States lingered long after the last troops had returned home. More than $120 billion was spent on the conflict. This led to widespread inflation, which was worsened by a worldwide oil crisis in 1973. The myth of American invincibility was also dashed, and the nation was left divided. 

 

Want to find out more about the life and death of Ho Chi Minh? Click here for more information, or here for more about the Vietnam War.