Thirty Years With The National World War II
Memorial
JUN 1, 2024
ROLLAND KIDDER
There was one major “player” who wasn’t there that
weekend, the chairman of that committee, Ambassador F. Haydn Williams, now
deceased. Though he guided the design process, likely his greatest contribution
was in finding, recommending and then working to have the site approved by the
“powers that be” in Washington.
We had spent a rainy afternoon in January, 1995
visiting various proposed sites for the Memorial from a list which had been
recommended by the Commission of Fine Arts of the United States (CFA.) At the
end of that tour, we walked past the old Rainbow Pool, then in need of repair,
at the end the Reflecting Pool. Willams stopped us there, a site that was not
on that list, looked up at the Lincoln Memorial to the west, and the Washington
Monument to the east and said: “This is where we should build the World War II
Memorial. The Second World War was the most significant event for America in
the Twentieth Century. It should be here, on the axis of the Mall, between
Lincoln and Washington.”
It was the first I had heard of his vision for the
site, and he never wavered from it. By July of that year, he had convinced the
President of the CFA, J. Carter Brown, that the Rainbow Pool site should be
considered. In September of that year, it was approved. In November, President
Clinton, in a ceremony at the location, dedicated the site…and soon thereafter
we commenced a national competition to select an architect to design the
Memorial.
Ambassador Williams, during those days, spoke of the
National Mall as “America’s Village Green.” In pursuing the approvals necessary
to have this special site for the Memorial, he would say: “We are not looking
to memorialize hubris or vainglory. We want to build something that will
capture the American spirit of unity and common purpose at that time, and to
also find a way to remember those who didn’t make it home, to bring them back
to America’s Village Green.”
If he were alive today, Haydn Williams would be pleased
with what the Memorial has become. Over 80 million have visited here since its
dedication. It has become a place to gather and remember what a Nation can do
when it is united in a just and common cause.
When you visit a World War II American Military
Cemetery overseas, like the one at Normandy, you are overcome by a sense of
common purpose and sacrifice. The thousands of marble crosses and stars of
David that mark the graves are of the same size. One is not more important than
the others. Generals are buried next to the lowliest Private. Rank doesn’t
matter in those cemeteries.
You get the same sense of common purpose and sacrifice
at the World War II Memorial . There are 56 granite pillars representing the
states and territories of that time. Yet, the most populous state at the time,
New York, has no larger pillar than American Samoa, probably the smallest
territory. They all contributed, they were all working together. A huge,
intertwined bronze rope visually connects and brings the pillars together.
The 4,000 stars on the freedom wall are separate and
distinct, yet, they receive their power because they are together, each
representing 100 of the 400,000 Americans who died in the war.
As you enter the Memorial from the granite arches on either
north or south, positioned above you is a large, bronze victory laurel. The
laurels are held there, not by rifles or bayonets, but by four sculpted
American eagles with 12 ft. wingspans sitting atop beautiful bronze columns.
They symbolize the American spirit from a united people that won that war.
If you haven’t as yet visited this special place, you
should try to go. You will come home feeling more connected to your history and
with a greater appreciation of what it means to be an American.
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