Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Lin was a 21-year-old senior at Yale in 1981 when her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected from over 1,400 submissions in a national competition.

Paul Stevenson Oles

Perspective drawings, Vietnam Veterans Memorial (June 15, 1981)

Opposition and Criticism

‘A veteran assailed the design as the "black gash of shame." Other detractors criticized it as a "black, flagless pit," while others attacked it as being "unheroic," "death-oriented," and "intentionally not meaningful.’

‘James Watt, Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan Administration, refused to issue a building permit for the memorial. Under the threat of losing their memorial, the veterans, their supporters and their opponents met to find a compromise.’

I see the wall as a kind of ocean, a sea of sacrifice that is overwhelming and nearly incomprehensible in the sweep of names. I place these figures upon the shore of that sea, gazing upon it, standing vigil before it, reflecting the human face of it, the human heart. ” - Frederick Hart

The Three Soldiers

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"I think psychologically all these pieces are requesting very quietly that you really complete the piece. The piece begins as something for me, but it ends only when a visitor has interacted with it. It is not finished as a finite object; it requires an act of participation.” - Maya Lin, 2000