Books, Arts & Manners: Democratic Realism on the Mall

OF all the faults that have been found in Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, the greatest has been overlooked. From the start, in 1982, conservatives and war veterans chastised Miss Lin for left-wing anti-Americanism. However just that charge may be, the real sin of her memorial is not that it seems so glaringly critical of the Vietnam War, nor that it appears to consign the lives of so many Americans to a black ditch, but that it provoked a trend that is in the process of ruining one of our truly great and inspiring national sites.

Miss Lin’s odd, unintended revenge on her critics may take another step this month when a design is unveiled for the National World War II Memorial. Her co-conspirators, as unwitting as she is, are veterans and conservatives.

MM

About the Author

Mark Miller

Mark Miller is the director of environment and natural resources litigation at the Pacific Legal Foundation.

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OF all the faults that have been found in Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, the greatest has been overlooked. From the start, in 1982, conservatives and war veterans chastised Miss Lin for left-wing anti-Americanism. However just that charge may be, the real sin of her memorial is not that it seems so glaringly critical of the Vietnam War, nor that it appears to consign the lives of so many Americans to a black ditch, but that it provoked a trend that is in the process of ruining one of our truly great and inspiring national sites.

Miss Lin’s odd, unintended revenge on her critics may take another step this month when a design is unveiled for the National World War II Memorial. Her co-conspirators, as unwitting as she is, are veterans and conservatives.