The Vietnam War was the longest military battle in the history of the United States. It lasted from 1959 to April 30, 1975. The Vietnam War was known as the Second Indochina War. It was fought between the North Vietnam and the U.S. supported South Vietnam. Over 1.4 million military people and about 2 million civilians were killed in the war. Dedicated to the men and women in the war is “The Wall”, “The Three Servicemen”, “The Women’s Memorial”, and “The Moving Wall.”
First of all, the Vietnam Wall is the first monument dedicated to the killed Americans in the war. The Vietnam Wall official name is the “Vietnam Veterans Memorial.” It has two other names, “The Wall” and “VVM.” There was a competition for the design of the Vietnam Wall. The day of December 29, 1980, 2,573 individuals and teams had applied for registration forms. March 31, 1981, 1,421 designs had been turned in. Maya Ying Ling won the competition. On March 11, 1982 the designs and plans received the final Federal approval. The actual work started on March 26, 1982. The Gilbane Building Company was the general contractor. The Wall cost $9,000,000 and was raised from private contributions, corporations, foundations, unions, veterans and civic organizations, and more than 275,000 individual Americans. The wall is made out of black granite from Bangalore, India. There are only two other places in the world to get black granite. The lettering is a light gray color. In 1982, 58,028 names were put on the wall, in 1983, 68 names were added, in 1984 15 names were added, in 1986, 110 names were added, in 2002 and 2007, 3 names were added, in 2001 and 2003, 6 names were added, in 2005 and 2006, 4 names were added, and in 2004, 10 names were added. So as of right now there are 58,256 names on the wall.
Secondly, is the symbolization on the wall. The east side of the wall points to the Washington Monument, while the west side of the wall points the Lincoln Memorial. There are 1,170 dots that are used to...