VIETNAM MEMORIAL. 1994.  OIL (48" X 72”).

                                                                       

ARTIST COMMENT:  "More than 52,000 American men died in the Vietnam War*, most of whom, though they might have gone willingly to fight, did not want to die for their country.  The mothers certainly did not want their sons to die.  Those who resisted the draft believed that the deaths were wrong.  Those who fled to Canada refused to take part in the deaths or give their lives.  No man has a duty to die, much less kill, for his country.

                    Maya Lin’s memorial takes us beneath ground level to the victims of the policies of JFK, LBJ, Kissinger, Nixon, et al.  52,000 American men died/were killed and more than 1,520,000 Vietnamese men, children and women were killed.  If we're honest, we would admit that we should be horrified that over a million more Vietnamese than Americans were killed.  Why aren't we?"

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*58,209 Americans died in the Vietnam War (47,424 in combat).  Estimates of the number of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians who died run as high as 3 million.  -- Editor