The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio. She attended the Yale University after her graduation to study architecture. She designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a class project and then decided to enter the largest design competition in American history. That is how her project which was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial became well known. She designed it as a V-shaped wall of black stone and it had the names of 58,195 dead soldiers. She didn't want to put the names in a alphabetical order for of one reason. She says in one of her quotes, "I also wanted remembering the past relevant to the present. Some people wanted me to put the names in alphabetical order. I wanted them in chronological order so that a veteran could find his time within the panel. It's like a thread of life."

•  Why do you think they choose Lin's design?

They choose her design because of controversy surrounding the memorials design. The way she design it was so amazing and yet as a viewer you would see yourself because of the reflection on the wall. This wall is like a symbol of healing for all the American's around this country.

The Vietnam Veterans memorial is a place of public commemoration in which people young and old can remember the loss and devastation that occurred during the Vietnam War. The wall you see above is in Wash,D.C. as most of us know and it was established by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. The construction on this wall began on March 16, 1982 and it was completed by November 11, 1982. A lot of people go to Wash,D.C. just for that wall, it means a lot for the Americans and so to the Vietnam people.