The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

• Ms. Frye

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Introduction to the Vietnam War
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U.S. Involvement

• Timeline of United States involvement into the
  Vietnam War
• http//www.schoolhistory.co.uk/gcselinks/britishwo
  rld/vietnam/getinvolved.pdf

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Why Are We at War?

• The Korean War
• The Spread of Communism
• President power and viewpoint
• Truman
• Eisenhower
• Kennedy
• Johnson
• Nixon

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The Draft

• The Draft Process
• Each day of the year was printed on a piece of
  paper representing each potential draftee's
  birthday.
• placed in blue plastic capsules
• The first date drawn was "one" the next date was
  "two" and so on, until each day of the year --
  each potential birthday -- had been drawn from
  the jar and assigned a draft number.
• http//www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/13/t
  he.draft/
• An unlucky lottery
• Over 1.8 million drafted
• War Draft Violators
• 209,517 formally accused
• 360,000 were never formally accused
• Approximately 4,000 served jail time.

http//www.afsc.org/youthmil/conscientious-objecti
on/Vietnam-war-resisters.htm
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A Country Divided

• Country taking sides, just like the Civil War
• More troubles to divide
• Tet Offensive
• Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination
• Senator Robert Kennedy assassination
• race riots
• college campus war protests

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Anti-war Protests

• Student activism
• Kent State Shootings
• http//youtube.com/watch?vBSCSRI4oa8M
• Protests Timeline
• War! lyrics
• Protesting through song
• http//youtube.com/watch?vx7q_2SoC9rY

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War Supporters

• There are always two sides to every story.
• Right to their own opinions.
• Protested too.

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The Effects of War

• 58 thousand of our fellow citizens gave their
  lives
• three million Vietnamese gave their lives
• Remembering Vietnam
• http//youtube.com/watch?vXayOuMHlzDMfeaturerel
  ated

http//www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/eve
nts/vietnam/pdf/transcript-01.pdf
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Who Will Design the Wall?

• Congress authorizes site of Constitution Gardens
  for the memorial (July 1, 1980)
• Announced a nation-wide contest open to any U.S.
  citizen who is 18 years or older

http//www.tourofdc.org/monuments/VVM/
www.worldofstereoviews.com/USwashingtonpage.htm
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And the Winner Is...

• Maya Lin
• Yale architectural student in her senior year
• Chose it as a class project
• Chosen out of 1421 submissions
• Famous architects submitted
• Controversy (a woman and Asian-American)
• Name was not even mentioned in the1982 memorial
  dedication

"The names would become the memorial. Maya Lin
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Facts about the Wall

• 246.75 feet long
• 10.1 feet high at highest point
• Granite from southern India
• 58,191 names on the wall
• built in Constitution Gardens
• Every name is 0.53 inch tall
• One end points to The Lincoln Memorial, the
  other points to The Washington Monument
• Contains 1,500 crosses representing names of
  missing soldiers or Prisoners of War
• if the soldier returns alive a circle is
  inscribed over the cross
• if the soldiers remains are returned, a diamond
  is engraved over the cross
• Source http//www.tourofdc.org/monuments/VVM/

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Dedication of the Memorial

• March 11, 1982- Design formally approved
• March 26, 1982- Ground formally broken
• October 13, 1982- U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
  approves erection of a November 13, 1982-
  Memorial dedication after a march to its site by
  thousands of Vietnam War veterans
• November 1984 The Three Soldiers statue
  dedicated
• November 11, 1993- Vietnam Womens Memorial
  dedicated
• November 10, 2004- Dedication of memorial plaque
  honoring veterans who died after the war as a
  direct result of injuries suffered in Vietnam,
  but who fall outside Department of Defense
  guidelines

Timeline from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietna
m_Veterans_Memorial
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Impact on Society

• The Wall
• by Catherine Anne McNeill
• I walked along that long black wall, with names
  as far as I could see. Friends I knew in
  childhood now etched in memories.I've touched
  their names so many times, remembered them with
  love.I walk along, the rain pours down, tears
  from heaven above.I watch a Vet, deep in
  thought, pain across his face.He walks a mother
  to the wall he's taken his friend's place.She
  reaches out to touch a name, the one that was her
  son.They pause together in the rain, their
  memories a bond.The men who fought, the men who
  died, their names for all to seeTheir lives so
  brief, fallen short, a page in history.We can't
  forget what they had done, so many years
  ago.Sacrifices they have made the bravery they
  showed.I walked along that long black wall,
  crying in the rain.For all those men who've
  touched our lives, we'll never see again.
• 28 May 2000

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The Publics Opinion

• A Gallup Poll from 2000
• Looking back, do you think the United States
  made a mistake sending troops to fight in
  Vietnam?
• -Yes, 69
• -No, 24,
• A CBS News/New York Times poll from 2000
• Looking back on the war in Vietnam, do you think
  we did the right thing in
• getting into the fighting in Vietnam? Or should
  we have stayed out?
• - the right thing, 24
• -stayed out, 60

http//www.archives.gov/presidentiallibraries/even
ts/vietnam/pdf/transcript01.pdf
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The Soldiers Opinion

• You can do things in war that seem alright
  because its war and the rules are different.
  Afterwards youll go back to normal life, youll
  reexamine what you didremember that.
  Governments dont have consciences you do. You
  will have to life with your conscience.
• Vietnam Veteran Alex Chadwick

91 of Vietnam Veterans say they are glad they
served 74 said they would serve again even
knowing the outcome http//www.vhfcn.org/stat.htm
lWESTY
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The Healing Process

• The Wall That Heals
• traveling wall
• visited over 250 cities
• contains a traveling museum and Information
  Center
• half scale replica

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Living On in Our Hearts

• Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund
• The Living Wall

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Learning from the Past

• Similarities to todays war in Iraq?
• Taking care of our veterans?
• Proper honors being given?
• What can we take from this war and apply it to
  the present and our future?

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In My Opinion

• Social Studies/Language Arts connection project
• Paper explaining reasons why you would choose to
  serve or not choose to serve
• Letter home (as if you are a soldier in Vietnam)
• Analysis of a war song
• Poetry
• Piece of art
• Your creative choice!