Articles & Letters
 
Unequal Sacrifices
Letter to New York Newsday, November 18, 1993

"We won't accept anything other than a statue. That's not equal," Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, reportedly said as she began organizing support for the memorial, which was dedicated last week.

"I didn't realize how much your sacrifice equaled and even exceeded that of the men," said Gen. Colin Powell at the memorial's groundbreaking ceremony on July 30.

Both Evans and Powell utter a strange interpretation of the word "equal" when you consider statistics and obligations.

Vietnam vets killed: 58,143 men, 8 women. Vietnam vets wounded or injured: 153,171 men, 132 women. Vietnam service: 3 million men, 10,000 women, according to The World Almanac. Draft and combat obligation for men, none for women.

It is illogical to claim that someone who bandaged wounds and covered dead bodies sacrificed equally as much as the victims. The doctors performing operations and the field medics applying first aid saved countless American lives. Nevertheless, they haven't asked for any additional recognition for their efforts.

If there was going to be another monument built for the Vietnam War, instead of a Vietanam Women's Memorial being dedicated in Washington, there should have been one dedicated to those whose loss is still with them today--the mothers and fathers who just simply had sons.

Anthony Nazzaro

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