Vietnam War Memorial, Philadelphia
The Vietnam War
Although the United States' commitment of support to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) began not long after the French were driven from Vietnam in 1954, the period from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975 is officially designated as the Vietnam Era. During that period, which began with the launching of US air strikes against North Vietnam after the August, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incidents, and concluded with the April, 1975 fall of South Vietnam two years after American combat troops had departed, nearly 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam. More than 58,000 were killed in action, 300,000 wounded and more than 2,400 remain unaccounted for.
It was our nation's longest war, it became the lead story in the television networks' news broadcasts for nearly a decade and, ultimately, except for the Civil War, it was the most divisive war in United States history. And it took a long time for the nation to begin to recover from its wounds.
Landscape architect Perry M. Morgan, the Memorial's designer, said that what he had hoped to accomplish was to honor the memory of those who had been killed in Vietnam as well as provide a place of contemplations for those who had returned from the war to reflect upon their experiences. Thus he created the concept of two facing walls - a curved wall inscribed with the names of the men killed in action facing a straight wall engraved with scenes from the war.
The two walls, creating an amphitheater-like setting, are composed of panels of polished, charcoal gray granite, selected by Morgan and quarried in Cold Spring, Minnesota. Stencils and screens were applied to the panels which were then sandblasted to engrave the names and replicate the scenes. The sandblasting was uniform on the panels on the wall of names, but was adjusted to allow various shades of gray to emerge on the scene panels.
The Name Panels
The southern wall containing the name panels is a concave structure, slightly raised in the center, on a higher plane than the opposing north wall inscribed with the scenes. Each panel is 34 inches wide, 56 inches high and 13 inches thick. Each name is inscribed in letters measuring 1-1/4 inches in height.
The Scene Panels
Based on the sketches by Tom Rice, a graduate student at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, each of the eight scene panels measures seven feet in height, five feet in width and thirteen inches in thickness. They are arranged in a left to right chronological sequence, beginning with the launching of the US carrier aircraft in August, 1964 and concluding with the rescue of Vietnamese refugees at the US Embassy in April, 1975.
To the left of the scene panels is a similarly sized panel inscribed with the insignias of the five branches of service above a world map; to the right is a panel inscribed with a large map of Southeast Asia.
Vietnam War Memorial, Philadelphia
The Vietnam War
Although the United States' commitment of support to the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) began not long after the French were driven from Vietnam in 1954, the period from August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975 is officially designated as the Vietnam Era. During that period, which began with the launching of US air strikes against North Vietnam after the August, 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incidents, and concluded with the April, 1975 fall of South Vietnam two years after American combat troops had departed, nearly 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam. More than 58,000 were killed in action, 300,000 wounded and more than 2,400 remain unaccounted for.
It was our nation's longest war, it became the lead story in the television networks' news broadcasts for nearly a decade and, ultimately, except for the Civil War, it was the most divisive war in United States history. And it took a long time for the nation to begin to recover from its wounds.
Landscape architect Perry M. Morgan, the Memorial's designer, said that what he had hoped to accomplish was to honor the memory of those who had been killed in Vietnam as well as provide a place of contemplations for those who had returned from the war to reflect upon their experiences. Thus he created the concept of two facing walls - a curved wall inscribed with the names of the men killed in action facing a straight wall engraved with scenes from the war.
The two walls, creating an amphitheater-like setting, are composed of panels of polished, charcoal gray granite, selected by Morgan and quarried in Cold Spring, Minnesota. Stencils and screens were applied to the panels which were then sandblasted to engrave the names and replicate the scenes. The sandblasting was uniform on the panels on the wall of names, but was adjusted to allow various shades of gray to emerge on the scene panels.
The Name Panels
The southern wall containing the name panels is a concave structure, slightly raised in the center, on a higher plane than the opposing north wall inscribed with the scenes. Each panel is 34 inches wide, 56 inches high and 13 inches thick. Each name is inscribed in letters measuring 1-1/4 inches in height.
The Scene Panels
Based on the sketches by Tom Rice, a graduate student at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, each of the eight scene panels measures seven feet in height, five feet in width and thirteen inches in thickness. They are arranged in a left to right chronological sequence, beginning with the launching of the US carrier aircraft in August, 1964 and concluding with the rescue of Vietnamese refugees at the US Embassy in April, 1975.
To the left of the scene panels is a similarly sized panel inscribed with the insignias of the five branches of service above a world map; to the right is a panel inscribed with a large map of Southeast Asia.