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When the design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was unveiled in 1981, some people praised its healing qualities, its accessibility, and its quiet power. Others called it a black bat, a boomerang, a hole in the ground. One vexed vet lost his cool before the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and branded it nothing but a big, black scar. “It’s insulting and demeaning,” he snarled. The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. was one of the most bitterly disputed public monuments in American history. The design created a political firestorm, which may have had more to do with the festering wounds of the war than with the artwork. Jan Scruggs, an army rifleman in Vietnam, was the man who conceived the campaign to build a memorial to honor Vietnam Veterans. After watching the movie,” The Deer Hunter” in 1979, he decided to devote himself to finding away to bring about his plan. He wanted a memorial; he had little interest in a work of art. The people that planned the memorial were the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, hired professionals, to run the design competition. They specified in advance many features for which Lin’s work is admired. They envisioned a mostly horizontal, contemplative work that did