The memorial was built and dedicated in November 1982, with a statue group and flagpole addition dedicated in November 1984, the latter the result of sometimes bitter controversy regarding the basic Lin design. The competition was won by a 21-year-old student at Yale University, Maya Ying Lin.
The 1,432 designs submitted in the competition, a then record number, were judged by an eight-person jury, all professionals representing the principal design disciplines. The formal competition process was concluded ten months later, in May 1981. Discussions concerning a design competition for the memorial had begun in May. Three federal agencies, responsible for approving the design in all its aspects, were closely involved throughout the effort. All public design projects in Washington are subject to intensive scrutiny, especially memorials. Congress in May 1980 and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in July. Legislation to authorize a memorial, guided by Senators Charles McC. To undertake this effort a sponsor organization was created, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), its board members including West Point and Naval Academy graduates. It was to be privately funded as a citizen initiative, the federal government contributing the site. The memorial was to be sited in a place of honor on the Mall in Washington DC. His further hope was that the memorial would reconcile the war’s veterans with the many Americans who had opposed the war. In 1979 Jan Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran, conceived the idea of a memorial to the memory of the American dead and, by implication, the veterans who had served. The war caused permanent transformations in American society and culture. 58,000 American soldiers died, 140,000 were wounded. The Vietnam War, 1959-75, was the longest and most divisive in American experience.
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