Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, when our nation honors American veterans of all wars. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th as Armistice Day, in commemoration of the end of fighting between Allied nations and Germany on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918; in 1938 it became a legal holiday, and in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation". There was a brief period (1971-5) when the day of the holiday changed under the Uniform Holiday Bill, which requires holidays such as Memorial Day and Presidents' Day to always fall on a Monday, but it was decided to reverse that decision to retain the historic and patriotic significance of the November 11th date.

This year we pay tribute to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on its 32nd anniversary. The Memorial Wall, designed by American architect Maya Lin, was the first part of the Washington, D.C. complex to be completed in 1982.  Her controversial design (at the time it was likened to a "giant tombstone" and many thought the design was too abstract) led to the addition of the Three Soldiers statue in 1984, and the Vietnam Women's Memorial was dedicated in 1993. Learn more about this memorial with books from our catalog:

For Adults

Offerings at the Wall: Artifacts from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection by Thomas B. Allen

Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Memorial by Laura Palmer

Boundaries by Maya Lin

For Kids

The Wall by Eve Bunting

The Story of the Vietnam Memorial by David K. Wright

A Wall of Names: The Story of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Judy Donnelly

Their Names to Live: What the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Means to America by Brent Ashabranner 


Library Use Only [Genealogy Main 2nd Floor]

To Heal a Nation: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Jan C. Scruggs and Joel L. Swerdlow

All They Left Behind: Legacies of the Men and Women on the Wall by Lisa A. Lark 


Links

Vietnam Veterans Memorial [National Park Service]

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall Page

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund  

Veterans Day [U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs]