Essays & Speeches

A Revisionist Monument: Unequal Sacrifices
Anthony Nazzaro, at the Vietnam Memorial, to veterans and the media

Never during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I and II, Korea or Vietnam did American men look back and point an accusatory finger at American women. Not as they died on the battlefields or suffered dismemberment or disease did they demand equal obligation from women in time of war. It was actually during the Civil War that women were first considered for bandaging and caring for the wounded on a voluntary basis. And we honor their efforts in all the wars, including Vietnam where the names of the women who died are already on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. 

However, it is illogical and shameful to say that those who returned sacrificed as much as the wounded or dying soldiers they cared for. Yet it was none other than Colin Powell who stated at the Vietnam Women's Memorial, "I didn't realize how much your sacrifice equaled and even exceeded that of the men." Actually, it was the field medics applying first aid and doctors performing operations that saved countless American soldiers' lives, and yet they have never asked for any special recognition for their efforts.

Additionally, the founder of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, Diane Carlson Evans, stated, "We won't accept anything other than a statue. That's not equal." Both Powell and Evans assert a perverted definition of equality when you consider the statistics and obligations of the Vietnam War.

• Americans killed: 58,143 men, 8 women
• Americans wounded or injured: 153,171 men, 132 women
• Americans who served in Vietnam: 3,000,000 men, 10,000 women
  (The World Almanac)
• Draft and combat obligation for men, none for women
• Education and career disruption for men, none for women

Therefore, instead of a Vietnam Women's Memorial, one should have been built for those whose loss is still with them today--the many mothers and fathers who just simply had and then lost their sons.

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