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Vietnam veterans memorial

Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated 43 years ago in 1982

HISTORY.com Editors

Ceremonies during the dedication of the Vietnam Memorial

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Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: November 05, 2025

Near the end of a weeklong national salute to Americans who served in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict. The long-awaited memorial was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in other memorials.

The designer of the memorial was Maya Lin, a Yale University architecture student who entered a nationwide competition to create a design for the monument. Lin, born in Ohio in 1959, was the daughter of Chinese immigrants.

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Many veterans’ groups were opposed to Lin’s winning design, which lacked a standard memorial’s heroic statues and stirring words. However, a remarkable shift in public opinion occurred in the months after the memorial’s dedication. Veterans and families of the dead walked the black reflective wall, seeking the names of their loved ones killed in the conflict. Once the name was located, visitors often made an etching or left a private offering, from notes and flowers to dog tags and cans of beer.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial soon became one of the most visited memorials in the nation’s capital. A Smithsonian Institution director called it “a community of feelings, almost a sacred precinct,” and a veteran declared that “it’s the parade we never got.” “The Wall” drew together both those who fought and those who marched against the war and served to promote national healing a decade after the divisive conflict’s end.

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FREEDOM WEEK IN BERLIN TO CELEBRATE FALL OF BERLIN WALL!

Berlin celebrates the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, for the first time with a “Freedom Week.”

According to the state-owned company Visit Berlin, a diverse program with around 130 events is planned at around 80 locations from Saturday until November 15—including conferences, workshops, concerts, plays, exhibitions, city tours, eyewitness talks, film screenings, and digital events. 

Two-day congress with 200 dissidents

The event kicks off on Saturday with a World Liberty Congress, which is expected to be attended by 200 dissidents from around 60 autocratic states at the Berlin House of Representatives. Over two days, they will discuss freedom, democracy, and human rights. On Sunday, the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event will take place at the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, which Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) is also expected to attend.

“Berlin Freedom Conference” on Monday

On Monday, Wegner will attend the Berlin Freedom Conference. At the Schöneberg Gasometer, representatives from politics, business, civil society, and the media will discuss how freedom and democracy can be protected and strengthened in times of growing autocracy. Among those expected to attend are Bundestag President Julia Klöckner (CDU), Ukrainian human rights activist Oleksandra Matviychuk — whose organization, the Center for Civil Liberties, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 — Russian opposition figure and civil rights activist Vladimir Kara-Mursa, who was released from prison in a prisoner exchange in 2024, and former commander of U.S. forces in Europe Ben Hodges. 

Symbol of freedom, peace, and democracy

According to Governing Mayor and patron Wegner, Berlin wants to use Freedom Week to send a message of freedom, peace, and democracy. The event is set to take place every year going forward. Numerous partners are involved, including the Robert Havemann Society, the Axel Springer Freedom Foundation, the World Liberty Congress, and Berlin’s Commissioner for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, Frank Ebert.