Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in 2014
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Location	Washington, D.C., U.S.
Coordinates	38°53′28″N 77°2′52″W / 38.89111°N 77.04778°W / 38.89111; -77.04778
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
Established	November 13, 1982
Visitors	3,799,968 (in 2006)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	www.nps.gov/vive
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Memorial
Architect	Maya Lin
NRHP reference No.	01000285[1]
Added to NRHP	November 13, 1982

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly called the Vietnam Memorial, is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The two-acre (8,100 m²) site is dominated by two black granite walls engraved with the names of those service members who died or remain missing as a result of their service in Vietnam and South East Asia during the war. The Memorial Wall was designed by American architect Maya Lin and is an example of minimalist architecture.^[2] The Wall, completed in 1982, has since been supplemented with the statue Three Soldiers in 1984 and the Vietnam Women's Memorial in 1993.

The memorial is in Constitution Gardens, adjacent to the National Mall and just northeast of the Lincoln Memorial. It is maintained by the National Park Service and receives around three million visitors each year. It was initially controversial for its lack of heroic ornamentation and iconography, but its reputation improved over time. In 2007, it was ranked tenth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects. As a national memorial, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.