"FullText" links provide a connection to electronic or print copies provided by the Lehigh Libraries and other services, such as electronic abstracts and interlibrary loan requesting.

2/11/1987. Media attention continues.

"Female Vietnam Veterans Have Their Share of Problems, Also," Tuscaloosa News, 02/11/87. [FullText]

9/1987. Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel approves the concept of a women's memorial at the Wall site.

9/11/1987. Now the government pays attention.

"Hodel Hears Plan to Add Women to Memorial," (Minneapolis) Star Tribune, 09/11/87. [FullText]

10/12/1987. The decision goes to those committees again.

"Women's Memorial," New York Times, 10/12/87: A16. "For more than two years, the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project has been asking that a statue of a woman be added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the capital to reflect the service of more than 10,000 women, mostly nurses, in the long conflict in Vietnam." The VVMF and Secretary of Interior Donald Hodel have approved, and now the decision is in the hands of the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. [FullText]

10/13/1987. VWMP leadership is optimistic.

"Women Gain a Key Ally For Vietnam Statue," St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, 10/13/87: 4A. "'I'm pleased,' said Donna Marie Boulay, a Minneapolis attorney who is chairwoman of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. 'That means about 75 percent of our approval process is finished now." [FullText]

10/20/1987. Letter from Maya Lin to the Commission of Fine Arts opposing a women's memorial.

"I spoke before you five years ago about the dangerous precedent being set by the addition of new sculptures to the Memorial's design -- I think at this point that danger is clearly evident. I am as opposed to this new addition as I was to the last -- I cannot see where it will all end. I could think of numerous other groups that might also like to be represented pictorially." [PDF]

10/21/1987. Letter from Donald Hodel, Secretary of the Interior, to J. Carter Brown, Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, endorsing a memorial.

"Based on the professional recommendation of the Director of the National Park Service, I support the inclusion of a commemorative statue that represents all women who served our country in the Vietnam War. My thinking is that the statue should not be restricted to any particular branch of the armed services, but I am prepared to defer to the Comission's expertise and judgment on that matter." [PDF]

10/22/1987. The Commission of Fine Arts rejects the proposal for a women's memorial.

10/22/1987. A serious symbolic imbalance.

"Women and the Wall," by Benjamin Forgey, Washington Post, 10/22/87: E1. "It has the lofty ring of a just cause, but the proposed Vietnam Women's Memorial . . . is not a very good idea. To be precise, it's a bad one. This is not to say that the women who served in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam were not brave, did not perform essential duties, do not deserve our respect. It is simply to point out that if our female veterans deserve more conspicuous honor than they already have received . . . then they should be given such honor elsewhere. To add a statue of a nurse to that extraordinary memorial . . . would create a serious symbolic imbalance. . . . The project raises questions of proportion, of political judgment, or precedent, of placement, of procedure." [FullText]

10/22/1987. Meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts: Minutes.

Donna Marie Boulay makes the presentation before the CFA. The architect reported that "The statue would be within a circular walkway within an existing tree opening, facing the end of the east wall as if in contemplation. . . . The design effort had been to integrate the statue into its context with dignity in a simple compatible way." Chairman Brown "recalled that the Memorial was intended to have a 'healing' effect, and said that reopening woulds would be misguided liberalism." [PDF]

10/22/1987. Meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts: Testimony.

Hodel, Boulay, Mills-Rittman (1-14): [PDF]

Boulay, Heger, Evans (15-30): [PDF]

Brodin, Young, Fornshill (32-45): [PDF]

Rhodeside, Stout, Bender (46-59): [PDF]

Atherton, Doubek, Cooper, Brown (60-73): [PDF]

Corbin, Lin, Atherton, Porterfield, Deaver, Hart, Brown, Goodman, Brown (74-90): [PDF]

10/23/1987. The CFA rejects the proposal.

"Commission Vetoes Vietnam Women's Statue," by Benjamin Forgey, Washington Post, 10/23/87: B1. "After two hours of stirring testimony, the Commission of Fine Arts yesterday voted 4-1 to reject the proposed Vietnam Women's Memorial." [FullText]

10/28/1987. Letter from CFA chairman Brown to Interior Secretary Hodel explaining the Commission's decision against a women's memorial.

"Our reasons are essentially two-fold: First and foremost, the Commission views the memorial in its present form as complete, and thinks that any new element will only serve to diminish the overall impact the memorial now has. . . . Secondly -- the Commission believes that any added elements such as the proposed statue will have the appearance of an afterthought no matter how carefully designed or located, and that they would more likely prove to be anticlimactic and disappointing, which would be a very sad thing." [PDF]

10/1987. Letters from the public regarding the Oct 22, 1987, Commission of Fine Arts meeting.

[PDF]

11/1987. Artistic impact of the Vietnam War Memorial.

"The Public Trust," by Rob Silverman, (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Artpaper, November 1987: 22. "The most important recent development in the art world may well not be any particular stylistic 'ism' or movement, but the renewed interest in public art. . . . Much recent public art can be traced to two models: the Seattle public arts program and the Vietnam War Memorial." [FullText]

11/2/1987. New tactic: ask Congress to overturn the CFA decision.

"State Woman Fights to Include Nurse on Vietnam Memorial," (Waterbury, CT) The American, 11/02/87: C8. About Doris Lippman, who says, "When I look at the statue of three fighting men, as a woman who served in the Vietnam War, it says nothing to me. . . . Women are called the invisible veterans. . . . This is a way not to be invisible and it would say women were there and we served. . . . One reason we requested the statue was we felt the healing was not complete. . . . We who served don't want to focus on the suffering. The statue is to heal." The plan now is to ask people to write Congress to overturn the CFA decision. [FullText]

11/8/1987. Hodel and Brown duke it out.

"A Vietnam Memorial for Women?" letters to the editor by Donald Hodel and J. Carter Brown, Washington Post, 11/08/87. See next entries. [FullText]

"A Most Appropriate Way to Remember," by Donald Hodel, letter to the editor, Washington Post, 11/08/87. "My support for the proposal . . . is based on my belief that American women made outstanding contributions during the Vietnam War and that this statue is a most appropriate way to remember and to honor their participation." [FullText]

"Women Veterans Seek Memorial," by Nancy Hobbs, Salt Lake Tribune, 11/08/87. [FullText]

"We Shall never Be Able to Satisy Everyone's Special Interest," by J. Carter Brown, letter to the editor, Washington Post, 11/08/87. "Of course this nation should be grateful to the women who gallantly served in the Vietnam War. . . . [but] The recent proposal to add on . . . carried with it all the earmarks of an afterthought. . . . it would have ended up slighting the very constituency it was attempting to please. . . . We cannot fail to recognize that there are many other categories of veterans. . . . Once the principle of the part standing for the whole is abandoned, how can one ever justify denying any of these worthy groups. . . . The existing memorial is, in fact, unusually inclusive. . . . Let's not start tinkering." Brown ends with the chance to build a separate memorial for women who have served in all wars. [FullText]

11/11/1987. Senator Durenberger announces introduction of a joint resolution to construct a women's memorial.

"Honoring Women Who Served," Washington Post, 11/11/87: A22. "The rejection of a plan to use the existing Vietnam memorial site does not diminish the nation's respect for these veterans or preclude the dedication of a special memorial at another place." [FullText]

"Women Vietnam Vets Seek Recognition," Stars and Stripes, 11/11/87. [FullText]

"A Time to Recognize Women Are Veterans Too," letter to the editor, New York Times, 11/11/87: A30. "This [the CFA decision] is an insult to the women of all the services. . . . It is time that we recognize that women are veterans too." [FullText]

"A Memorial for All Women," letter to the editor by J. Carter Brown, Chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, Washington Post, 11/11/87: A22. Points out that there is a memorial to nurses in Arlington Cemetery. [FullText]

"Vietnam Women Veteran's Statue Now Going the Legislative Route," Washington Times, 11/11/87. Senator Durenberger announces introduction of a joint resolution that "would require a statue representing the contributions of women in the Vietnam War be erected in Constitution Gardens, site of the Vietnam Memorial." "I'm somewhat regretful you had to come to our aid," said the women's group chairman Donna-Marie Boulay. J. Carter Brown of the CFA said that the proposed statue could lead to a "forest of monuments to special causes. . . . The aesthetics of adding anything new is the problem. . . . [the statue] could be a work by Michelangelo, which it isn't, and it would still detract from the enormous power of the memorial." [FullText]

11/20/1987. Congress considers.

Congressional debate over the bill introduced by Senator Durenberger: Congressional Record, S16701. [FullText]

11/1987. S.J. 215 is introduced in the Senate and H.R. 3628 in the House -- both intending to authorize a memorial.

12/6/1987. A Pandora's box of proliferating statuary.

"Vietnam Veterans Don't Need Another Statue," by Robert Doubek, Washington Post, 12/06/87: D7. "The proposal to add the statue of the nurse is objectionable for many reasons, the primary of which is that it would equate a relatively small category of officer support personnel with infantry as symbols of the Vietnam veteran. The result would be the diminution of the existing sculpture symbolizing infantry alone. This in turn opens the Pandora's box of proliferating statuary that would depict each ethnic and occupational subcategory, as if the memorial were some kind of legislative body. If a white Army nurse, then why not a black Army nurse?" [FullText]