Quote:
Originally Posted by baileyvpotter
I remember when the plans for the memorial were announced and the artist Maya Lin's submission of the memorial design
was chosen. There was opposition to the decision of the design - not being more traditional and too simplistic.
However, the Memorial has to be seen in person. It was heartbreaking, seeing the extensive black granite with carvings
of thousands upon thousands of men and women who lost their lives to this war. I saw a few names of the boys in my
neighborhood carved in that stone.
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James Webb, who would go on to serve as Secretary of the Navy later in the Reagan Administration, and more recently as a Democratic Senator, called it 'nihilistic'.
Secretary of the Interior James Watt initially refused to issue a building permit for the memorial after the winning design was revealed.
Ross Perot, a major financial sponsor in the late 1970s of the movement to get the wall created, did everything he could to stop it from being built, and referred to Maya Lin as an 'egg roll' - there was considerable consternation over the fact that a woman of Asian ancestry was the designer.
Columnist Pat Buchanan asserted that the design was chosen in part because there was 'a communist' in the selection committee.