The bitterness I feel when I remember carrying the
lifeless bodies of close friends through the mire of
Vietnam will probably never subside. I still wonder if
anything can be found to bring any purpose to all
the suffering and death.The Memorial The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was
conceived by Scruggs and fellow veterans to serve as
a permanent tribute to the U.S. dead and as a means
for the country to reflect on the war in all its dimen-
sions. Scruggs founded an organization, the Viet-
nam Veterans Memorial Fund, but it got off to a
shaky start, initially raising only $144.50 and becom-
ing a subject of ridicule, even from mainstream me-
dia. Undeterred, Scruggs enlisted the support of na-
tional leaders such as U.S. senator John Warner of
Virginia, who donated $5,000 of his own money and
helped raise $50,000 more. Donations, large and
small, began to pour in from 275,000 people, and
the memorial fund ballooned to $8.4 million. Pri-
vate money would fulfill Scruggs’s dream of explain-
ing the conflict to many who were not personally in-
volved in Southeast Asia.
Scruggs lobbied Congress for a suitably promi-
nent location on the National Mall for a memorial
that would serve as a site of healing and reflection, as
well as become a tangible tribute to all who were
touched by the conflict. Two acres near the Lincoln
Memorial were reserved for the monument, and on
July 1, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legisla-
tion authorizing that location for the construction
of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. For the next two
years, Scruggs and his organization monitored the
design and construction of the memorial.
A national design competition, judged by a panel
of architects and artists, commenced after the proj-The Eighties in America Vietnam Veterans Memorial 1023
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.