Open Question: The Open Book Memorial

The planned Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial was unveiled in mockup form at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, October 28. The memorial will be a polished black granite wall consisting of two panels joined at the center in a 130° angle. Ten feet high at the apex, the wall tapers into gently rising earth at each end. The names of the dead and missing will be inscribed in the order of their death or disappearance. The list will be headed by the inscribed year “1961” and an appropriate prologue of honor to “those who served in the Vietnam War.” It will be concluded with the inscribed year “1975” and an epilogue to the courage, sacrifice, and devotion of our “Vietnam veterans.” The target date for dedication is November 11, 1982. It will, pace na-tional review’s premature evaluation of it [“Stop That Monument,” Sept. 18], be beautiful, imposing, and fitting.

Some have sought to read a special symbolism into the angled design, seeing a “V” for Vietnam or for victory, the inverted “V” of the Vietnam protest, or a non-com’s chevron. This is all fevered imagining. After the press conference 1 asked the charming 21-year-old artist, Miss Maya Yang Lin, what she had in mind when she drew that angle. For her-an artist it was very simple. Given the size and location of the plot of land and the requirements of balance, she had to choose a center point and an angle that would cause the two wings to point, respectively, toward the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. There is something appealing about such austere, principled simplicity.

NH

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Norman B. Hannah

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The planned Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial was unveiled in mockup form at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, October 28. The memorial will be a polished black granite wall consisting of two panels joined at the center in a 130° angle. Ten feet high at the apex, the wall tapers into gently rising earth at each end. The names of the dead and missing will be inscribed in the order of their death or disappearance. The list will be headed by the inscribed year “1961” and an appropriate prologue of honor to “those who served in the Vietnam War.” It will be concluded with the inscribed year “1975” and an epilogue to the courage, sacrifice, and devotion of our “Vietnam veterans.” The target date for dedication is November 11, 1982. It will, pace na-tional review’s premature evaluation of it [“Stop That Monument,” Sept. 18], be beautiful, imposing, and fitting.

Some have sought to read a special symbolism into the angled design, seeing a “V” for Vietnam or for victory, the inverted “V” of the Vietnam protest, or a non-com’s chevron. This is all fevered imagining. After the press conference 1 asked the charming 21-year-old artist, Miss Maya Yang Lin, what she had in mind when she drew that angle. For her-an artist it was very simple. Given the size and location of the plot of land and the requirements of balance, she had to choose a center point and an angle that would cause the two wings to point, respectively, toward the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. There is something appealing about such austere, principled simplicity.