Did any left wingers or any liberals ever defile the Vietnam War Memorial?

[noahmijo]

I am not old enough to know that part of history but did it ever happen that any of you more seasoned DU'ers might know of?

[sniffa]

1. aLL the time.

see?



Littering... and then some of them even engage in a practice caLLed 'rubbing' on the waLL.

[Lerkfish]

2. not that I can recall. But remember, the memorial took decades

to come about.

which is also sad.

[JimmyJazz]

3. The last casualties of the Vietnam war officially occured on

May 15, 1975. The Wall was erected in 1984. :)

[MrBenchley]

4. No...but right wing loonies pitched a fit...

A whole bunch of GOP congressmen released a letter complaining that it was a mark of shame and dishonor. Crazy Bill Buckley and Pat Buchanan raged and fumed about how disgraceful it was.

Henry Hyde and James Watt tried to stop it from being built, and Reagan refused to come to the unveiling.

[JimmyJazz]

5. Do you have any links for that?

:wow: -- I remember that the statue of the three soldiers was also erected to appease certain groups, but I don't recall the details of it.

[MrBenchley]

10. Found this one....

"A letter signed by 27 Republican congressmen stated, "We feel this design makes a political statement of shame and dishonor rather than an expression of our national pride at the courage, patriotism, and ability of all who served." In a New York Times editorial, Vietnam veteran Thomas Carhart wrote, "By this will we be remembered: a black gash of shame and sorrow, hacked into the national visage that is the Mall." James Watt, then-Secretary of the Interior, attempted to hold up construction, and then-President Ronald Reagan failed to show up for the opening ceremonies."

http://www.npca.org/magazine/2000_issues/september_october/vietnam.asp

[YOY]

6. Now an everpresent reminder

and a internationally recognized cultural symbol of both a time and place not easily forgotten.

Everytime I am showing a friend DC I stop by the mall. There is always someone there looking for a name. There are always flowers there. I always see a tear or at least an eye soon to shed one.

It assigned names to the statistic.

I've only seen one other tribute like it: Stalingrad/Volgagrad...there the names are in a huge rotunda and rise at least 50 feet off the floor (very tiny print.) Ultra-chilling especially when you see an old Russian man looking sadly at the wall his chest covered in metals...very similar to what I have seen here.

[MrBenchley]

11. I still recall the talk radio of that era

and Bob Grant fuming that the designer was an oriental woman....

[GoneOffShore]

7. I don't remember the brouhaha

From the right wing loonies.
Could you refresh our collective memories please?

[MrBenchley]

12. Don't know what more to add....

Found this....

" Tom Wolfe, the novelist and artistic Luddite, condemned the decision not to build a figurative monument. Like countless other anti-Modernists in our past, he detected in the design a communist plot, calling the decision to erect an abstract sculpture "symbolic of a Red Guard-style Cultural Revolution'' that had supposedly taken hold in the United States.
Wolfe was proved wrong--as were all the other illustrious Cold Warriors who did their damnedest to stop Lin's design from being built. Patrick J. Buchanan worked hard to derail the project, and so did William F. Buckley Jr., Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., Dallas businessman Ross Perot and James Watt, Ronald Reagan's secretary of the Interior. Each had his own reasons. However wrong they all were--and unrecorded is whether any of them, in retrospect, has changed his mind in the face of an overwhelming public embrace of the design--only Wolfe had put his inadvertent finger on the source of the monument's power."

http://www.namvets.com/Reading/memorial_that_tells_the_truth.htm

[noahmijo]

8. Good to know here's why I asked this question because

if I'm ever talking about psycho man who mowed down the crosses at camp casey I want to be able to say that no liberals ever defiled a memorial like that without putting my fight in my mouth.

I would never expect a liberal to do something like that but unfortunately with so many of us it could take one moron to ruin it for the entire pack.

In this case to me I'd be more open about this fact if maybe all the bushbots condemned this act but being that they supported this punk for what he did then I can't come to any conclusion that the conservative wing of the country supports acts of defilement against the troops.

[MrBenchley]

13. The right wing has a very selective and dishonest memory

You might also compare the way they're discussing this dignified mourning with the circus that accompanied the Schiavo farce...

[Lerkfish]

14. they made a lot of racist remarks because the artist was part

vietnamese, or asian, as I recall.

[MrBenchley]

17. I recall that very well....

As I said, Reagan refused to go to the ceremonies....

[BrotherBuzz]

9. This left winger draftee that added "no value, no advantage, really..."

visited the memorial a week after the dedication ceremonies and can say the only thing I saw defiled were my shoes because the sidewalk had yet to be installed and the ground had been churned by thousands of feet during the cememonies. I believe I waded through six inches of mud to visit 'The Wall'.

... "We're, neck deep in the Big Muddy, and the old fool says to push on..."

[ThomWV]

15. Are You Kidding? It Was Built At The Demand of Left Wingers and Liberals

And a very good portion of those of us who visit it when in DC are Liberals too.

[denese]

16. One of the saddest places I have ever been

I suppose the likes of Rush would say that I and others have defiled it...with tears.
Denese