Jan Scruggs is a Vietnam veteran who served in Vietnam from 1969 - 1970 as an infantry corporal. Scruggs felt the need for a memorial to be created for the Vietnam veterans. He founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Scruggs wanted the memorial to acknowledge and recognize the service and sacrifice of all veterans who served in Vietnam. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a nonprofit charitable organization, was incorporated on April 27, 1979 by a group of Vietnam veterans with Scruggs as its president. Scruggs and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund lobbied Congress for a two acre plot of land in the Constitutional Garden located on The Mall in Washington D.C. On July 1, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation which provided a site near the Lincoln Memorial (The Vietnam Veteran's ).
The design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected from a national design competition. There were four criteria for the design: 1. be reflective and contemplative in character; 2. harmonize with its surroundings; 3. contain all 57,939 names of those who died in the conflict or were still missing; and 4. make no political statement about the war (The Vietnam Veteran's ).
There were 1,421 design entries. Each design was given a number to keep the author's identity anonymous. All 1,421 designs were displayed in an aircraft hanger at Andrews Air Force Base. There were 8 jurors, each were internationally recognized artists and designers. They narrowed the original 1,421 designs down to 232 and then narrowed down again to 39. The jury finally selected Entry Number 1,026 because it clearly met the spirit and requirements of the design. The designer of Entry Number 1,026 was Maya Ying Lin (The Vietnam Veteran's ).
Maya Lin was an undergraduate at Yale at the time of the design competition (The Vietnam Veteran's ). When she was told she won the Memorial design competition, she showed no emotion.