Vietnam Veterans Memorial commemorates the Americans who died on the battlefields of the long war in the Asian country. He is one of the most visited monuments of the capital.

The Vietnam War was one of the major military conflicts of the XX century. Having started as a civil, it quickly turned into a clash of two coalitions: the United States and its allies supported South Vietnam, the Soviet Union and China were on the side of the North. Western coalition use the latest weapons, carpet bombing, napalm. North Vietnamese forces skillfully used guerrilla tactics. Losses sides were enormous. The bloody battle lasted from 1957 to 1975 and ended with the defeat of the South. April 30, 1975 Communist troops raised the flag on Independence Palace in Saigon, the city was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

This war has split American society. About a third of the population was totally against it. After Vietnam took no less than 3 million Americans, half of whom took part in the fighting. The country has lost in killed more than 58 thousand people.

The idea of ​​a memorial put forward a Vietnam veteran, former Cpl 199th Light Infantry Brigade Jan Scruggs. Fundraising for a monument, he began by saying that invested in the business in 2800 for personal dollars. As a result, with 8, 4 million private donations. In 1980, Congress appropriated land near the Lincoln Memorial. A contest was announced projects. It received nearly a thousand applications, including a sketch of a student at Yale University Maya Ying Lin - and his chosen jury.

Lin has conceived a memorial in the form of the letter V. Branch of colossal letters - two gradually sinking into the land of black granite walls on which are carved the names of 58,220 fallen in Vietnam. One of the walls is pointed straight at the Washington Monument, the other - at the Lincoln Memorial. Along the trail passes the monument to visitors - to the walls with the names of loved ones can be touched.

The unusual design and construction of a complete lack of decor initially aroused indignation. To reassure the public, not far in 1984 it was made more traditional monument, known as the "Three soldiers". The sculptor Frederick Hart carved three soldiers - white, African American and Latino, very realistically portrayed their weapons and form.

In 1993, part of the complex was the Vietnam Women's Memorial - a monument to American women who participated in the fighting. Most of them were nurses. The sculptor Glenna Goodacre portrayed the three nurses in uniform, rescuing a wounded soldier.

Over time, the criticism leveled slept, Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become a national shrine. Near the black mirrored walls, similar to a scar in the earth, all the time there is someone that people relate names carved fingers, pondering, crying. There leave gifts gone forever: US flags, toys, flowers. Sometimes it can be seen as a visitor pressed to the surface of the granite sheet of paper covering his pencil strokes - on a sheet name appears deceased in Vietnam.