Making Sense of Monuments by Michael J. Kolb;

Author:Michael J. Kolb;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780429764929
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a popular tourist destination because it strikes a symbolic cord with the American public, and unlike other major monuments it communicates a very personalized experience of the past. When the visitor gazes upon the walls they simultaneously see their own reflection in the glassy granite walls together with the engraved names of over 58,000 soldiers killed or missing in action; a spatial-cognitive sequence of time that symbolically links the living to the deceased. The engraved names are listed chronologically rather than alphabetically, adding a sequential component to the monument’s temporal structuring. As a place, the Memorial does not disrupt the surrounding grounds, yet it intentionally merges the metal spaces of the architect and visitor with the physical space of the granite walls and nearby greenery. This personalizing experience encourages many visitors to leave mementos or offerings—notes, photographs, teddy bears, war medals, or alcohol libations. I have walked along the course of the Memorial, descending towards its center until only the reflective granite is visible. At the apex of the two walls, the sheer number of names immerses you, stretching back the way you came as well as forward. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial tacitly functions like a tombstone for thousands of soldiers who are mourned simultaneously.

The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is its link to an unpopular war still fresh at the time of its construction. It was built only six years after hostilities ended, unlike most war monuments that are constructed much later than the conflicts they commemorate, perhaps to foster national healing following the social fissures that the Vietnam War caused, or perhaps to redress those patriotic soldiers and their families who were publically scorned. I vividly recall as a boy meeting these well-dressed soldiers as they returned from Vietnam. My views of soldiery were tempered by my father, a veteran of World War II and vocal proponent for intervention. So I was perplexed when an arriving soldier removed medals from his chest and threw them down in anger as he departed the airport. I quickly ran to collect these discarded objects, a Vietnam War ribbon and a Bronze Star, not fully comprehending this young soldier’s dilemma until I was much older. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is also successful because it caters to a populace hungry for a more personal and private form of experience and expression. Uncomfortable with the formal edifices of hallowed patriots such as Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, the genius of the Memorial is its ability to touch a diverse and broad audience by employing spatial-cognitive sequences of movement (and time) that subtly envelope the personal experience of the visitor as they confront the dead with the timeless American qualities of sacrifice and democracy.

Other monuments have followed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial (1984), the Korean War Memorial (1994), The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (1997), the George Mason Memorial (2002), the National World War II Memorial (2004), and the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial (2014).

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