From: baldwin@csservera.scs.usna.navy.mil (J.D. Baldwin)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,alt.politics.perot,alt.war.vietnam,soc.veterans
Subject: Re: Vietnam Memorial (was Vietnam Moratorium)
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:34:49 GMT
Followup-To: soc.veterans
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dep't., U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD
In-reply-to: jmk@cbnews.cb.att.com's message of 15 Nov 92 21:28:18 -0400

[Note that I have crossposted and redirected as I thought appropriate;
edit the header if you disagree.]

thf2@midway.uchicago.edu (ted frank) writes (quoting Thomas Andrews):
>>If there is anybody out there who has not been to the Vietnam Memorial,
>>I recommend it.  I am too young to have known anybody who died in
>>Vietnam, but the wall brought tears to my eyes anyway.
>...
>It's a good thing Ross Perot didn't have his way.  He fought kicking
>and screaming against having an Asian woman design the memorial, even
>to the point of having the members of the memorial selection committee 
>followed.

This is a lie.  (Please note that I have not called Ted a liar--he may
be repeating a lie he heard.)  Perot, the author James Webb, and a
whole lot of others who organized and contributed to this memorial
objected to the winning design on the aesthetic grounds that the
contrast between the subterranean black monument and the surrounding
large white above-ground monuments made too painful a statement about
a supposed "shameful" nature of the Vietnam war.  No responsible
person associated with these protests ever made any protests based on
the race or sex of the winning designer.  *I* objected strongly to the
Memorial on these grounds at the time (I was a contributor also), and
it never crossed my mind to consider this as a factor.

As for having the members of the selection committee followed, it's
starting to look like Perot did this to people without particular
regard to whether or not he was friendly toward them.

I really hate the over-used artifice of "provide sources" so common
around here, but I'm going to indulge this once.  If you're going to
assassinate Ross Perot's character this way (and readers of this space
know I'm no slavish defender of Perot), you'd better have a cite:  put
up or shut up.

(I dimly recall a story of one person associated with the Memorial
noting the irony of the fact that the winning designer was an Asian
woman, but immediately apologized and said that he hadn't considered
that either way in the selection process, but was simply noting an
interesting fact.  Was this possibly Perot, and is it possible this
story got blown up into the version Ted relates above in which Perot
fights "tooth and nail" against the very idea?)

. . . and jmk@cbnews.cb.att.com (joseph.m.knapp) writes:
>I also find it fascinating that Ross Perot and friends led the fight to
>erect the "more fitting" statue of three soldiers near the reviled Wall.
>Today, the statue interests few but the Wall moves one and all.

I now realize that I was wrong to oppose the wall.  My aesthetic
judgement was clouded.  Some (higher-profile than myself) others who
fought against the construction of the winning design have since
admitted they were wrong, too.  (How common is that in American public
life?  Also, has Perot made any recent statements on this subject?
It's kind of hard picturing him admitting to a mistake.)  The wall is
beautiful, and it is moving.  The most moving aspect, perhaps, is the
practice its design seems to have encouraged of leaving artifacts of
the war at its base.

It's hardly fair, though, to say that "the statue interests few."  The
statue is moving in its way, too.  And despite my change of heart
about the wall, I still maintain it was inappropriate to accept,
unaltered, the design of an American war memorial whose design did not
include the flying of the U.S. flag.
--
 From the catapult of:              |+| "If anyone disagrees with anything I
   _,_  J. D. Baldwin, Comp Sci Dept|+| say, I am quite prepared not only to
 _|70|___:::)=}-  U.S. Naval Academy|+| retract it, but also to deny under
 \      /   baldwin@usna.navy.mil   |+| oath that I ever said it." --T. Lehrer
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