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Have you ever wondered why the United States and POW/MIA Flags are not allowed to fly over the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall?

By Ted Sampley
March/April/May 1997

Nearly 2,500 of the 58,000 names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. are those of American servicemen who remained unaccounted for or were not returned after the shooting stopped and the Vietnam War ended in 1975. The failure of the communist Vietnamese to return all missing living and dead POW/MIAs, or give an honest and full accounting of what happened to them, caused a controversy that is still raging today.

From that controversy, the POW/MIA flag was born. Emblazoned with a silhouette of a soldier in captivity, and the words You are not forgotten, it has become a nationally recognized and accepted symbol of the POW/MIA issue. It flies every day in the Rotunda of the nation's Capitol Building, on the flagpoles of veterans organizations, VA hospitals, post offices, state capitals and in yards throughout America, but is never allowed to be flown at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

A close study of the critically acclaimed V shaped memorial and its history may reveal why those who designed and created the Wall, as the memorial has become known, have fought so hard to prevent any modification of its original design, including the additions of an American and POW/MIA flag. Adding such "patriotic claptrap," the builders of the memorial successfully argued, would destroy the memorial's neutrality, simplicity and the visual poetry of its lines.

Interestingly, the design of the Wall may not be as unique and unbiased in statement as the public has been led to believe. Its shape matches an ancient Oriental symbol intrinsic to a humanistic philosophy. When viewed from above, the memorial's sunken and angled black walls resemble the Confucian symbol ren, which in Chinese means "man" or "person."

Confucianism is a philosophy based on the teachings of Confucius, a social philosopher of China, whose teachings have deeply influenced East Asia for centuries (551-479 B.C.). It originated about 500 B.C., later becoming the state religion of China and the single most important force in Chinese life.

Ren is symbolized by a black stick figure pictograph of a person's two legs spread in a standing position. In its cosmic spiritual sense, ren is defined as a journey from life to death and back again and embraces a humanistic view that everyone should strive to live in harmony because all people are as one. Simply put, and in comparison, those who believe in God, trust in God. Those who believe in Confucianism trust in human beings for their source of values and have very little belief in theology or the afterlife.

Ren has been incorporated in Chinese architecture and memorials, particularly in Taiwan. The ren character dominates a 1993 design for a monument in Taipei commemorating a February 28, 1947 incident, in which thousands of people lost their lives in an island-wide uprising defending freedom. That memorial, according to The Free China Journal, includes black squares, creating two lines that meet at an angle forming the character ren.

Since the Wall's dedication in 1982, its founder, Jan Scruggs, has been talking about America's need for reconciliation with communist Vietnam and, with the zeal of an evangelist, he travels the country philosophizing about the Wall's "healing powers." He has even joined a lucrative speakers' circuit and for $5,000 to $10,000 per appearance will lecture about the supposed "healing and reconciliation" that has taken place at the memorial.

As for the POW/MIA issue, Scruggs has said it is a lost cause and that continued unfounded accusations about Vietnam still holding U.S. servicemen as prisoners of war is hindering the reconciliation nd healing between the peoples of Vietnam and America.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc., of which Scruggs is president, has raised an additional $10 million through direct mail solicitation since it raised the original $8 million needed to build the Wall. The fundraising letters tell prospective donors about the memorial's "healing process" and the "inner peace and tranquility" that so many Americans have found after standing before its "mystical" walls. The donor is then asked for "badly needed" money to ensure that the "shrine" is properly maintained and kept in tip-top condition. The donor, however is not told that the federal government is responsible for the maintenance of the memorial.

Scruggs appears to believe that the Wall is a "sacred" place of worship where anyone, whether Vietnam veteran, war protester, draft dodger or politician, can be healed--just come to the Wall, reconcile and be cleansed of the pains of the Vietnam War.

In a July 13, 1993 USA Today guest editorial, Scruggs actually compared his unrelenting campaign against the selling of POW/MIA T-shirts and bracelets near the memorial to that of Jesus overturning the tables of moneychangers and chasing them out of the temple. Scruggs, who remains a sacred cow and unaccountable in his own fundraising, said selling T-shirts near the memorial should not be allowed because "moneychangers" do not belong in a "place of worship."

Does all of this sound unbelievable?  Recall the events surrounding the creation of the memorial in the spring of 1981, then you decide.

Creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

By that year, the Memorial Fund, which had been organized in 1979 to build a national memorial honoring American servicemen who had served in the Vietnam War, had been granted a site for the memorial in Constitution Gardens. A specially appointed panel of eight men, all of whom were professional architects or artists, none with any Vietnam War experience, had just wrapped up a nationwide design competition by selecting the Maya Lin design--entry No. 1,026 as the winner.

It was a time when Vietnam veterans were still sensitive about their Vietnam experiences and the memories of coming home to either be spat upon by war protesters or generally ignored by most of America were still fresh and painful.

Maya Ying Lin, a 21 year old Chinese American, had designed her entry as a class assignment for funerary architecture during her senior year at Yale. It consisted of two walls, each approximately 250 feet long and comprised of 140 black marble panels (ultimately imported from India, a nation whose leadership condemned U.S. participation in the war).

Beginning at ground level, the walls gradually descended to a depth of ten feet to meet at the vertex, forming a 125-degree angled V. The black walls would be chiseled with the 58,000 names of the Americans killed or missing in the war, listed in the order in which they became a casualty. There would be no inscription, no flag and no mention of Vietnam anywhere on the memorial.

The architectural student had created a memorial, she told the press, that was "visual poetry, a journey from violence to serenity--one which would make you experience death." Her design, many experts noticed, exhibited a strong Oriental influence depicting life and death as a continuous circle.

Maya Lin's father, an artist, was asked what he thought of his daughter's winning design. He described it as "simple, yet very direct, somewhat Chinese." He suggested her family culture might be reflected in her work.

Vietnam veterans, however, did not see the Oriental influence nor did they seem to care that the creator of the winning design was not a professional architect. They were more interested in the memorial's message. The vets wanted a memorial which would affirm their dignity and recognize the sacrifice of those who served in Vietnam instead of one which could be used as a tool for the old arguments against the Vietnam War.

Many complained, understandably, that the Maya Lin design, which she had described as an "unexpected black rift in the earth," actually appeared to them "a black hole of shame" into which they would be required to descend to "cleanse themselves of the sin" of participating in the "evil war." To some vets, the design represented the war protesters "V" peace symbol, which the vets felt was used during the war in favor of the North Vietnamese war effort.

Even Scruggs suffered some doubt after the winning design was unveiled. Although publicly he declared it to be "a great memorial," he confided that he thought it was "weird" and resembled a "big bat."

Scruggs could have rejected the design, but a majority of Memorial Fund directors loved it. They convinced him that Maya Lin's memorial was apolitical and was going to be a "great work of art" and that its "simplicity" captured the "ambiguity and anguish that the Vietnam War invoked on the nation." Scruggs soon became a true believer.

When a reporter asked Scruggs what the design meant, he answered, "the memorial says exactly what we want it to say about Vietnam--absolutely nothing." To the same question, Maya Lin said the design "evokes feelings, thoughts and emotions . . . it does not scream anything . . . it is different."

Those answers served only to further inflame the growing controversy. The vets demanded the memorial be something above ground that honored the dead as well as the survivors of the war and they wanted an American flag flying over the memorial site.

Maya Lin resisted. She was against any changes or additions to the memorial, "I'll be stubborn about that," she said, "I must protect the integrity of the design." Besides, she added, a flag would make the site "look like a golf green."

To young Maya Lin, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was an art contest that she had won. She acknowledged that she knew nothing of the Vietnam War. She had never seen a Vietnam newscast on television, had never read about the war or those who fought, bled and died for their country, knew nothing about serving in the military and had never experienced losing anyone she loved. Therefore, Maya Lin's interpretation of Vietnam, the war and death was abstract and naturally influenced by the teachings and values of her family.

Maya Lin and Jan Scruggs' Memorial Fund, as well as a hodge-podge of artists and elitist journalists, most of whom never had been within sight of Vietnam, could not understand why the vets were angry and demanding changes. They were convinced that the design was a great work of art and that the Vietnam War should be memorialized in black rather than the white marble of Washington. They said Maya's design demanded dignified simplicity and that any additions such as an inscription, a flag or the mention of Vietnam would "rob the memorial of its emotional power."

Architect Kent Cooper further enraged the veterans, who at the very least were insisting on the addition of the flag, and others when he declared there was no need to "adorn the memorial with patriotic claptrap." He referred to the American flag as "a long stringy object" that would detract from the artistic value of Maya Lin's memorial.

What Cooper and the other elitists had forgotten, however, was that it was not Maya Lin's memorial. It was to be a memorial to honor those who died, became missing in action and for those who survived the Vietnam War.

The controversy and battle over the memorial design continued for months. Those who wanted the memorial to be seen as a work of art generally supported Maya Lin, while most Vietnam veterans demanded more.

Realizing that the controversy over the design, which had become heated and at times ugly, placed the memorial project in danger of failing, the Memorial Fund directors decided to compromise. They would add a statue and a flag to the memorial. The additions would be a considerable distance away from Maya Lin's walls placed so that the "integrity" of her design would remain unchanged.

Even so, Maya Lin became angry when she heard about the compromise and made her feelings known. She said the vets were "militaristic" and accused them of treating her like a child. She said she had been ignored on a matter which affected her design and that placing a statue and flag anywhere near "her" memorial was like "drawing mustaches on other people's portraits."

The Memorial Fund hired sculptor Frederick Hart to create a statue depicting three servicemen in the Vietnam War. Ironically, it was later disclosed that Hart had avoided the draft during the war and had been tear-gassed in a war protest that had turned violent. Hart's statue, as well as an American flag, was in place and dedicated in 1984. Maya Lin, still steaming because she believed her memorial had been compromised, refused to show up for the dedication of the statue.

The Lin Family

Maya Lin's family on both sides, the Lins and Changs, belonged to China's educated class of government officials, doctors, lawyers artists and scholars, whose beliefs and culture were strongly influenced by the teachings of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius.

In the early 1900s, both families were active in the Nationalist Party, which was credited with pushing China toward a more open democratic society. Maya Lin's grandfather, Lin Chang-min, was a lawyer and influential Nationalist. He was temporarily assigned to Europe in 1921 as director of China's delegation to the League of Nations.

General Chiang Kai-shek, who led the Nationalists, was defeated in 1949 by Mao Tse Tung's communist forces which were supported by the Soviet Union. Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists were forced to flee to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) where he established the Republic of China. Other Nationalists who had the means to do so, including members of Maya Lin's family, had already escaped to the United States and other countries.

After arriving in the U.S., Henry Lin obtained a faculty position as an artist potter and later became the Dean of Fine Arts at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Julia Chang, the teenage daughter of a physician, had been smuggled out of China by relatives and enrolled at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts after her arrival in America.

Julia met and married Henry after graduating from Smith in 1951. An accomplished poet, she joined her husband in Athens and obtained a faculty position at Ohio University, where she became a professor of Asian and English Literature. The Lins had two children, a son Tan, born in 1956, and daughter Maya, born in 1959. Maya's name, according to a biography written by Mary Malone, came from a Hindu goddess. Her middle name, Ying, is translated as "precious stone."

Maya Lin and her brother were raised in "an extremely close-knit" Chinese family environment in the secure and academic atmosphere of Athens, a town of then approximately 22,000 residents. According to Malone, the Lins, despite their feelings of being strangers in a strange land, were "happily and creatively occupied in a house cluttered with books and art materials. Chinese art and poetry were part of the Lin's daily life." Malone described Maya Lin as an American girl from the midwest who was "Chinese in her bones." Maya Lin's family, because of their work for progressive causes while in China, was mentioned in Jonathan Spence's The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980.

It is obvious that Maya Lin was born into a family whose culture and values are rooted in Confucianism and that its influence has played, either consciously or subconsciously, a pivotal role in her creative expressions.

Confucianism is Humanism

From 100 B.C. to present, Confucianism has influenced Chinese education, art, government, personal behavior and the individual's duty to society. All candidates for government jobs in China were required to take a civil service examination based on Confucian ideas.

The philosophy of Confucianism regards the universe as a triad composed of a cosmic heaven, earth and man, with each element having specific and mutual responsibilities. It stresses morals and political ideas, emphasizing the worship of ancestors, respect for government authority and reconciliation with one's enemies.

Although scholars of Confucianism seek enlightenment by a combination of meditation and moral action, Confucianism does not teach a belief in a deity or in the existence of life after death.

In Song poetry, Confucians employed verse to celebrate the cosmic-spiritual order of ren, Confucianism's ultimate virtue. Loosely translated, ren means "the condition of being human in dealing with others--all people are my brothers and sisters, and all things are my companions."

In short, Confucianism is clearly Humanism, a religious system of ethics centered around human beings rather than the belief that God is the supreme creator and ruler of the universe. Confucianism is practiced in other countries such as Vietnam, Japan and Korea, with millions of people honoring Confucius in much the same way as other peoples honor founders of their religions.

Metaphysical "Healing" at the Wall

It remains unclear whether or not the design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was intentionally modeled to form the Confucian symbol ren. It is clear, however, that Maya Lin, Jan Scruggs and the others responsible for the memorial's creation fought off all attempts to add flags or otherwise modify the original design.

It is also clear that Scruggs, in his lectures, and the Memorial Fund in its solicitations, push their philosophy of metaphysical healing at the Wall and reconciliation. They believe the question of prisoners of war and missing in action is a needless obstacle to reconciliation with Vietnam and therefore has no place at the Wall.

If those whose names are on the Wall could speak, would they not shout for America to do whatever is necessary to bring their missing brothers home? Would they not ask why the American and POW/MIA flags are banned from flying over their memorial?

Despite the selfish motivation of an influential few who continue to dictate what the Wall should or should not mean, it has been the compassion of people who visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that have made the Wall a special place honoring America's Vietnam veterans.

The Wall is not a shrine and has no mystical power to heal. It is its seemingly endless lines of chiseled names representing lives lost and hopes extinguished that stirs emotions and evokes tears and reflection. Nothing more, nothing less.

Editor's note: The author is publisher of The U.S. Veteran Dispatch. He is a Vietnam veteran who served two combat tours in Vietnam and whose five year old son's grandfather, Army SFC Robert D. Owen, is missing in action in Laos and listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This article was revised in 2005.