The Vietnam Women’s Memorial
Lynn H.
This memorial, dedicated on November 11, 1993, is meant to highlight the service of women in the Vietnam war, mostly in support roles. It is the first “tangible symbol of honor for American women” (Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, n.d.). Over 26,5000 women, mostly in their twenties, volunteered to serve as nurses, air traffic controllers, communication specialists, and intelligence officers during the war (National Park Service, 2021). The memorial shows one woman supporting a wounded soldier, while another woman stands with her hand on her shoulder, looking to the skies, “as in ‘prayer or waiting for a helicopter.’” (The American Legion, 2020), pointing to women’s roles in communications. There is a third kneeling woman, staring into the empty helmet in her hands who stares into an empty helmet, who was intended by the sculptor to be “viewed as a civilian”, representing the ‘heart and soul of peace’ (The American Legion, 2020). Sculptor of the memorial, Glenna Goodacre says, “You see despair in the empty helmet” (Aschenbach, 1993). Hence, although the third woman does not explicitly portray the role of women in combat it is nonetheless integral to the memorial. She points to the sacrifices that civilian women made in supporting the war effort and personifies the stakes of the war, the ideal of peace and the human cost that the war had exacted.
This memorial is the inverse of the other war memorial nearby, The Three Soldiers, dedicated in 1984, of three male soldiers, intended as a complement to the larger Vietnam War Memorial in order to humanise the Vietnam veterans, where the three men were rendered in great detail. However, in this memorial, the wounded male soldier’s face is obscured, and it is the three women who are portrayed in the most accessible and personal manner.
Front of the memorial
Back of the memorial
History of the memorial
Captain Diane Carlson Evans, born in 1946, served as a combat nurse in the Vietnam War. As the founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation (previously the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project), she spearheaded the ten year effort to create a monument which would give closure to the women who served in Vietnam. She moved to create this monument as she felt that the existing Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the accompanying Three Soldiers memorial “did not acknowledge adequately (the service) of the women.” (Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, 2021). Of the 58,191 names on granite wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, only eight are women (Aschenbach, 1993).
Women veterans felt that they had not been given a place in the public narrative of the Vietnam War, and were “treated as if they never went to war” because they were not men in combat despite their valuable service (Aschenbach, 1993). In an interview, Evans speaks to the great skill and emotional toll that service in Vietnam took, “We were all highly skilled nurses but also highly skilled and stuffing away our own emotions and shutting down about how we felt. That’s hugely part of why I wanted our country to know what we did and how we were with their sons when they were dying” (Tam, 2013). Despite the perception that women were out of danger as they were not directly on the front lines, Evans says that “We were definitely in combat zones. We were rocketed and we were mortared, and we were injured, and some died” (Uenuma, 2021). Evans wanted to celebrate the sacrifice of her fellow female veterans, and to rectify the public myth of “bad army women” which was prevalent when she was a young recruit (Tam, 2013). Just as previous Vietnam memorials were intended to honor the servicemen involved in the arduous but morally ambiguous undertaking, women in service also deserved recognition and closure. Hence, Evans incorporated the Vietnam’s Women’s Memorial Project as a non profit in 1984, pushing her proposal through Congress and three federal commissions. Evans argued that “women are also soldiers. Women also need to heal. Their service is worthy of honor and recognition.” (Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, 2021).
Her proposal faced opposition from the Commission of Fine Arts, which reviews public projects, who thought adding a third Vietnam monument could “compromise the emotional impact of the existing memorial” (Tam, 2013) and that trying to offer more specific representation in memorials was a slippery slope that would only present “further complications” and “(create) a conflict of who’s in or out” (Tam, 2013). It also drew media criticism, who suggested that the drive for a third monument was “largely political,” and opposition from Maya Lin, designer of the groundbreaking original Vietnam memorial (Tam, 2013). Evans says, “The powers that be in Washington did everything to stop us” (Aschenbach, 1993).
The monument was finally sculpted by Glenna Goodacre, with support from The American Legion. It toured the country, taking it to the Vietnam women veterans it honored, before being dedicated in 5 Henry Bacon Dr SW, Washington DC in 1993 on Veterans Day, right next to the Three Soldiers Memorial (The American Legion, 2020).
The significance of the memorial today
The memorial has offered women Vietnam veterans closure, marking a new stage of life for many veterans who have been unable to speak openly about their experiences. Edie Meeks, who served as a nurse alongside Evans, said the “memorial transformed a painful tour of duty into something worth sharing” (Tam, 2013). It serves as a way of processing a complex period of her life and honouring her service to the nation in that period (Tam, 2013). Evans said “We were bitter and angry about how the country treated the Vietnam generation. The monument has allowed us to let go of that and feel joy and happiness” (Tam, 2013).
The public conversation on veterans has shifted since this memorial was dedicated, and increasingly recognizes the role that women play (Tam, 2013). After winning this landmark battle to dedicate a memorial, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation is still engaged in the continuing work of telling the story of women who served, educating the public and facilitating research on related issues (Tam, 2013).
Pictures and location
Relative position of the three Vietnam memorials
Path to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial
Map location for 5 Henry Bacon Dr SW, Washington, DC 20007
Video showing relative position of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Video showing relative position of the three memorials
Further reading
- Moving a Vision: The Vietnam Women’s Memorial – Diane Evans writes about the process of creating this landmark memorial for the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation.
- Vietnam War nurse: ‘I saw people do stuff they’d never do at home’- Edie Meeks, a former Army nurse, speaks about her service in Vietnam and involvement in the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation with the Washington Post.
- Vietnam Women’s Memorial- Watch President Bill Clinton unveiling a model of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial on C-SPAN.
- Borne the Battle #234: Army Veteran Diane Carlson Evans, Founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation- Listen to Diane Evans discuss her time as a nurse in Vietnam and her campaign to establish the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Borne the Battle, a podcast by VAntage Point.
- How to Bandage a War; the Nurses of Vietnam Still Wounded – This New York Times piece discusses the lived experiences of women in Vietnam and how they have consistently been written out of the public narrative. Veteran Penny Kettlewell shares how her attempts to hold a remembrance when first lieutenant Hedwig Diane Orlowski was killed in action were dismissed.
- Allen Hoe – The Memorial continues to celebrate the role of women nurses in combat. Listen to how a serviceman’s father met the nurse who treated his son in Iraq at an event at the Memorial.
References
The American Legion. (2020, April 16). Vietnam women’s memorial sculptor dies. The American Legion. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.legion.org/honor/248790/vietnam-women%E2%80%99s-memorial-sculptor-dies
Aschenbach, J. (1993, August 8). Despair, hope mark women’s war memorial : Vietnam: Bronze sculpture will begin its journey from New Mexico to the nation’s capital on Aug. 28, stopping in more than 20 cities in 14 states. it will be dedicated Nov. 11, Veterans Day. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-08-mn-21736-story.html
Tam, R. (2013, November 8). Vietnam War Nurse: ‘we weren’t shrinking violets’. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/11/08/vietnam-war-nurse-we-werent-shrinking-violets/
Tam, R. (2013, November 8). Vietnam women’s memorial celebrates 20 years on the Mall. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2013/11/08/vietnam-womens-memorial-celebrates-20-years-on-the-mall/
Uenuma, F. (2021, May 27). The American military women who lost their lives in Vietnam. Time. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://time.com/6051363/vietnam-war-women-memorial/
US National Park Service. (2021). Reflect at the Vietnam Women’s Memorial (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/vietnam-womens-memorial.htm
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. (2021, November 16). Diane Carlson Evans. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from https://www.vvmf.org/stories/Diane-Carlson-Evans/
Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation . (n.d.). History of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial. Vietnam women’s memorial: History of the vietnam women’s memorial. Retrieved May 18, 2022, from http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/history.php