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1/1984. Exchange of letters among Jan Scruggs, James Webb, and an attorney.

1: Webb writes to Scruggs, declining to be interviewed for a book on Scruggs but including a statement that can be used. [PDF]

2: The VVMF lawyer responds to Webb's letter and statement. [PDF]

3: Webb letter to Scruggs with more explanation. [PDF]

4: Webb responds to the attorney. [PDF]

5: The attorney responds to Webb. [PDF]

1/9/1984. Visitors to the wall.

"Honoring the Vietnam Veterans -- One by One," by Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor, 01/09/84: 16. "Today, veterans -- some in bits of uniform or jungle hats, wearing their ribbons and medals -- mingle with many others who come here out of curiosity and respect. There is a certain connectedness that adds to the reverence and beauty of the place." [FullText]

3/28/1984. Letter from Scruggs to Chuck Allen of the National Vietnam Veterans Review containing a document entitled "Setting the Record Straight."

This is in response to an article in National Vietnam Veterans Review. "In my view, the article reflects the ugly, vindictive nature of the relentless attacks on a project that has done a great deal for Vietnam veterans." [PDF]

5/24/1984. The audit clears VVMF.

"Vietnam Memorial Fund May Sue WDVM," by Jacqueline Trescott, Washington Post, 05/24/84: D2. The GAO audit cleared the VVMF. and "officials said they are considering legal action" against the television station. [FullText]

6/21/1984. VVMF memo about an "Apology Statement for [television station] WDVM.

"An apology statement that VVMF would like for WDVM to make." [PDF]

7/17/1984. A fruit of victory.

"Reporter's Project Ruins His Career," by Jonathan Friendly, New York Times, 07/17/84: A10. "'It ruined me professionally,' said Mr. Sherwood, a 37-year-old-reporter who earlier won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody Award. He said his reports on the memorial's financing were fair and accurate, but the television station for which he did the inquiry would not defend it after a Federal investigation did not back up the reporter." [FullText]

10/1984. The perfect monument to the spirit of its time.

"Of Arms, Men & Monuments," by Tod Lindberg, Commentary, 78 (Oct 1984): 51-56. "The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which will be on the Mall in Washington forever, was conceived and executed during the heyday of the anti-political idea of the soldier. It does provide a statement about the broader meaning of that war, precisely by denying that it had a broader meaning. There is no American nation here, no democracy, no American way of life. . . . In this sense, though the Vietnam Veterans Memorial truly commemorates neither the war nor the veterans, it is the perfect monument to the spirit of its time, and to the estate to which the soldier, and the nation, had fallen." [FullText]

10/5/1984. The Hart statue is on the horizon.

"Statue for Vietnam Veterans Memorial Nears Completion," New York Times, 10/05/84: B3. [FullText]

10/30/1984. More on the Hart statue.

"The Vietnam War Comes Home Again, In Bronze," by Barbara Gamarekian, New York Times, 10/30/84: A20. Hart's statue is added to the memorial. Hart: "It's as if they had come unexpectedly upon the wall as a kind of vision, or a metaphor for the war itself -- a brooding, unknowing, unknowable, tragic presence. . . . One marine who saw the model wrote me: 'They are searching for their own names.'" [FullText]

"Statue Erected to Honor Veterans at Vietnam Memorial," by Martin Weil, Washington Post, 10/30/84: B3. "After an unveiling in a brief ceremony on Nov. 9, the statue will be dedicated at what is expected to be a major public ceremony at 2 p.m. Nov. 11." [FullText]

11/1984. An answer to the question why men love war.

"Why Men Love War," William Broyles, Esquire, November 1984: 61-62. Simply an amazing essay, not about the memorial, but about the experience of fighting in Vietnam. Read it. [FullText]

11/6/1984. A Vietnam memorial in New York.

"A Wall Honoring Not Only Vietnam Veterans," by James Reston Jr., New York Times, 11/06/84: A25. About plans for a Vietnam memorial in New York City. "The design -- a plain wall of glass brick etched, inside, with veterans' words written from Vietnam and letters sent to them from home -- is too narrow a view of that war. Ultimately, such a monument is doomed to be a forgotten place. The test of a good monument is whether it means something in a hundred years. Washington, after all, has given Vietnam veterans a shrine. Its inspiration lies in its ambiguity, for it encourages one to ponder the enormous cost of human life without addressing the issue of whether the cost was justified. Veterans, regardless of their support or loathing of their war, have rightly embraced the memorial as their own. It is difficult to imagine that a second memorial will upstage the first. New York should go beyond Washington's achievement and put its mind to a broader, different statement." [FullText]

11/8/1984. Marking the second anniversary of the memorial.

"Channel 9 Apologizes To Fund; Sets 'Record Straight' On Vietnam Memorial," by John Carmody, Washington Post, 11/08/84, D1. "An unprecedented retraction by a television station" for the investigative reporting that questioned the use of VVMF funds. [FullText]

"A Cycle of War and Remembrance; Viet Memorial 2 Years Old," by Arthur S. Brisbane, Washington Post, 11/08/84: A1. "Some come in the night to relive a battle. Some come to grieve for a comrade in arms, a fiance, a son, a daughter. Some come because the war orphaned their emotions and the wall has become home. Some come to serve the lost soldiers. Every day a thousand encounters take place at the dark chevron cut into the Mall. The cycle of war and remembrance is played out in clear light and veiling darkness, clarifying the role this monument plays in the lives of those for whom the fighting never really ended." [FullText]

11/9/1984. Veterans Day and the Hart statue dedication.

"Vietnam War Veterans Assemble for Ceremony," by Ben A. Franklin, New York Times, 11/09/84: A25. Veterans Day and dedication of the Hart statue. [FullText]

"The Memorial, Mirror of Vietnam," by Elisabeth Bumiller, Washington Post, 11/09/84: F1. "Today, finally, the controversy may be over" with the unveiling of the Hart statue. Sections on Scruggs, Carhart, Sherwood, Wheeler, Webb. [FullText]

"Thousands are Expected for Vietnam 'Salute II,'" by Arthur S. Brisbane, Washington Post, 11/09/84: C1. "The exact meaning of the statue is open to interpretation, said Jan Scruggs. . . . 'The story I like best,' he said, 'is that these guys are on patrol and all of a sudden they're in the Twilight Zone and they see the memorial with all the names. And they're looking at the wall to see if their own names are there, or if their buddies' names are on it.'" [FullText]

11/10/1984. More.

"Sculpture Unveiled at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," New York Times, 11/10/84: 1: 1. [FullText]

"The Statue & the Wall," by Benjamin Forgey, Washington Post, 11/10/84: D1. "Time will tell. But when you stand there in the hollow next to those great black walls and look back up the hill to that copse of trees, you now see these three figures, and there is something in their expectant stance that makes the space between you and them come alive. It is perhaps a most improbable reconciliation, but it is altogether a fitting one." [FullText]

11/11/1984. And more.

"The War-Scarred Assemble at Vietnam Memorial," By Ben A. Franklin, New York Times, 11/11/84: 1: 28. "Amid reunions of fighting men whose heightened sense of comradeship in combat had turned at home to feelings of isolation and rejection, the day seemed the beginning of a recovery from a nightmare, a reconciliation." [FullText]

11/12/1984. And yet more, including the president and Tom Carhart.

"President Accepts Vietnam Memorial," by Ben A. Franklin, New York Times, 11/12/84: A1. "This memorial is a symbol of both past and current sacrifice. . . . The war in Vietnam threatened to tear our society apart, and the political and philosophical disagreements that separated each side continue, to some extent. . . . It's been said that these memorials reflect a hunger for healing." [FullText]

"President Leads Tribute To Vietnam Veterans," by Arthur S. Brisbane, Washington Post, 11/12/84: A1. "Many of the Vietnam veterans who flooded Washington this weekend were looking for someone: a commanding officer, a fellow pilot, a friend they only knew by a nickname who, for all they knew might have died in the war." [FullText]

"Vietnam Letters: Echoes from a War Long Gone," U.S. News & World Report, 11/12/84: 68. Excerpts of letters sent from Vietnam that will become part of New York's Vietnam memorial. [FullText]

'The Memorial, the Mirror': A Reply," letter to the editor by Tom Carhart, Washington Post, 11/12/84: A18. "I regret having spent two hours with that reporter. She managed to take my comments out of context, painting me as a blood-crazed killer. That is simply not true. . . . Three years ago, I took a principled stand and expressed strong criticism of the design chosen for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Because of that, as was noted in the article, my professional career advancement has been somewhat hindered. But I have no regrets. . . . we have attained the addition of a powerful statue, an American flag, and a fitting inscription to our memorial. Now it is a beautiful and complete memorial." [FullText]

"After the War, The Fight Continues; Thomas Carhart vs. the 'gash of shame," by Charles E. Wheeler, Washington Times, 11/12/84: B1-2. "Tom Carhart was at the unveiling ceremony last Friday, but . . . a little distant, preoccupied. He stood toward the back of the crowd. . . . But the story behind the story is that without Tom Carhart, there never would have been a statue or a flag added to the memorial at all. . . . To set the record straight, Tom Carhart is a man's man -- something few people in this city can appreciate. As is true with most Vietnam combat veterans, he didn't need the memorial to assuage some deep craving for recognition." [FullText]

11/26/1984. Another description of the statue.

"Healing Viet Nam's Wounds," Alessandra Stanley and Bruce Van Voorst, Time, 11/26/84: 44. About the Hart statue: "The posture of the three figures is slack, the battle dress disheveled. The faces are young and tired. The eyes are wary. There is nothing heroic about the bronze men, but together they suggest the wordless fellowship that is forged only in combat. And there is no mistaking where they fought: Viet Nam." [FullText]

12/1984. Our communal tragedy.

"The National Vietnam War Memorial," Shirley Neilson Blum, Arts Magazine, December 1984: 124-28. "The minimal form and message of this piece, its ambiguity and it startling emptiness, may in the end stand as its most prophetic aspect, for it is a work of art that contains our most tragic secrets. In a gentle but relentless way it holds a mirror up not just to the single visitor but to an entire nation. There is no victory worth remembering. . . . we know no heroes; even the distinction between winning and losing has been blurred. . . . the public has built a monument, not to the unknown soldier but to named men and women whose dying is our communal tragedy." [FullText]

12/11/1984. Another exchange of letters between Jan Scruggs and James Webb (see January 1984).

1: Webb to Scruggs. [PDF]

2: Scruggs to Webb. [PDF]

3: Webb to Scruggs. [PDF]

12/12/1984.

"Denouement," by Michael Bledsoe, Christian Century, 12/12/84: 1166-67. Meditation by the statues: "Finally, I walk in front of the figures and, from a distance, observe their eyes. They are comfortless eyes that, I now realize, focus on the wall of names. And I realize that I have witnessed not only an epiphanic vision but an auditory act. For the soldiers face the wall not only to see it, but to hear the names cry out. And through the surrounding trees, beyond the din of traffic noise and jets flying over the Potomac, the names are heard. I whisper my brother's name, for his woundedness deserves to be heard. And I only wish that the names of parents, of lovers and friends, of those sensitive pacific souls, could be proclaimed as well. Perhaps the denouement of any war can come only as close as the whispering of names, spoken in some courageous attempt to re-member their precious lives." [FullText]