OFFERINGS AT THE WALL: Artifacts From the...
OFFERINGS AT THE WALL: Artifacts From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Collection by Thomas B. Allen (Turner Publishing: $24.95; 288 pp., paperback original). Since its dedication in 1982, visitors have left more than 30,000 objects at Maya Ying Lin’s dramatic black marble wall. Collected and stored by the National Parks Service, the offerings range from the whimsical (winning poker hands, cigarettes) to the dramatic (medals, weapons) and poignant (baby shoes, letters, stuffed animals). These gifts for the dead symbolize the ongoing national mourning for the lives lost in that long and purposeless conflict.
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