ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the history of the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including the principal controversies that surrounded the project. It examines a number of subsequent interpretations of the memorial by scholars and academics. The work of the sculptor Frederick Hart, the statue consists of a portrayal of three young American servicemen, dressed in the combat uniforms that were characteristic of American forces in Vietnam and carrying weapons and ammunition. It is clear that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is fundamentally ambiguous and ambivalent about the Vietnam War. The Korean War Veterans Memorial combines realistic statues of American servicemen in Korea with a polished black granite wall that reflects the statues and displays faces - taken from actual photographs of unidentified servicemen in Korea - etched into its surface. The chapter considers the relationship between the memorial and the concept of an American civil religion.
