History is made up of war from ancient times to when the first accounts of civilization were recorded. Artifacts from ages before writing indicate life at those times was not always peace and calm. America's war on home turf was a civil war that almost tore a country apart. World War and other conflicts pulled Americans toward foreign shores in defense of our nation. One of those foreign wars again almost tore our nation apart because of so much controversy. The war: Vietnam (November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975). Estimates of the number of casualties vary, with one source suggesting up to 3.8 million violent war deaths.
On this day in 1982, a long-awaited Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington as a national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War. So many fought a war in which they did not believe but did so when America called them to fight. Of those who survived, their lives were never the same.
The memorial was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 (58, 272 by another source) Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in other memorials.
"We met as soul-mates / On Parris Island
We left as inmates / From an asylum.
And we were sharp / As sharp as knives
And we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives..
...And we would all go down together,
...And we would all go down together,
We said we'd all go down together."
- Billy Joel, "Goodnight Saigon"
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The memorial in its simplicity is breath-taking!
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial soon became one of the most visited memorials in the nation's capital. A Smithsonian Institution director called it "a community of feelings, almost a sacred precinct," and a veteran declared that "it's the parade we never got." "The Wall" drew together both those who fought and those who marched against the war and served to promote national healing a decade after the divisive conflict's end.
God Bless America! God Bless Our Military...the Defenders of our Nation, our Flag, our Country, our Honor!
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