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Jan Scruggs is a Vietnam veteran who served in Vietnam from 1969 – 1970 as an infantry corporal. Scruggs felt the need for a memorial to be created for the Vietnam veterans. He founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Scruggs wanted the memorial to acknowledge and recognize the service and sacrifice of all veterans who served in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a nonprofit charitable organization, was incorporated on April 27, 1979 by a group of Vietnam veterans with Scruggs as its president. Scruggs and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund lobbied Congress for a two acre plot of land in the Constitutional Garden located on The Mall in Washington D.C.. On July 1, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation which provided a site near the Lincoln Memorial (The Vietnam Veteran’s…). The design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected from a national design competition. There were four criteria for the design: 1. be reflective and contemplative in character; 2. harmonize with its surroundings; 3. contain all 57,939 names of those who died in the conflict or were still missing; and 4. make no political statement about the war (The Vietnam Veteran’s…). There were 1,421 design entries. Each design w