The Wall: A Day at the Vientam Veterans Memorial

"The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is much more than a chevron-shaped wall of polished black granite, more than the sum of the 58,183 names engraved on its mirror-like surface. For tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans and their families it has become a place of healing, an altar of memory, a hallowed ground. No one could have guessed in 1982, when the monument was dedicated, that these simple slabs of stone would become the most visited monument in the nation's capital, drawing some 2.5 million visitors a year." "In August of 1992, in anticipation of the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the monument (November 13, 1992), LIFE magazine sent a group of 15 reporters, photographers, assistants, interns and editors to put together its salute to the memorial. From dawn to dawn, LIFE's reporters and photographers documented an extraordinary procession of people. In it was pain, joy, lonesome tears, rain, darkness and the welling up of memories as solid as the names engraved on the wall." "A brilliant blending of LIFE magazine photography and writing, THE WALL is a fitting testimonial to the monument and to the Vietnam veterans and their families."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)