Even Before Arrival, Wall Evokes Reactions Veterans Chafe Over Sponsorship Of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Replica; Religious Groups Disappointed In Local Rules

With replicas of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial set to tour the Inland Northwest this month, organizers are getting a taste of the controversy and bitterness that still lingers 30 years after the war.

And they are witnessing firsthand a nation healing from its wounds.

“The wall epitomizes the whole concept of sacred space and sacred place,” said Ron Large, a Gonzaga University associate professor who packs auditoriums with his course on the war.

“In American culture, these kind of monuments stand for things larger than themselves,” Large said. “It’s not just an attraction - something is being evoked when you visit.”

Everybody, it seems, wants a piece of the phenomenon.

The Spokane committee hosting the traveling wall has turned down two requests by religious groups to organize events in conjunction with the memorial’s visit to the Spokane Arena May 28-31.

The committee also made it clear that no outsiders would be allowed to set up booths, distribute literature or organize services at the Arena. Other groups in charge of the wall’s appearances in Chewelah, Leavenworth, Wash., and Moscow, Idaho, have set similar rules.

Two separate veterans groups are also angry because Turner Network Television is underwriting one of the exhibits. Jane Fonda, wife of network owner Ted Turner, was an outspoken critic of American involvement in the war.

“This is supposed to transcend the war - the conflicts, the turmoil,” said Spokane City Councilman Jeff Colliton, who sits on the committee coordinating the Spokane exhibit.

“This is meant to be a place of healing for all, not just for a few,” said Colliton, a retired Army colonel who served two tours in Vietnam.

The Rev. Jim McElreath, founder of Pointman Ministries, which provides Christian counseling for veterans, was disappointed to learn he couldn’t set up a booth at the Spokane wall.

“We wanted to be there 24 hours a day, with chairs and food and a comfortable place for people to sit down and talk,” he said. “But we’ll make do; our presence will be known.”

McElreath and other ministers are volunteering as peer counselors. They will be among the dozens of veterans available at the site for advice and support.

Also disappointed at not being able to participate are the organizers of the March for Jesus. The annual gathering coincides with the closing day of the exhibit.

Founder Ruth Hamp planned to hold a special ceremony at the wall. Instead, the route of the march had to be altered to steer clear of the wall, with thousands of participants now scheduled to gather at the Vietnam Memorial in Riverfront Park.

“At first we felt bad, but now we understand,” Hamp said of the wall committee’s decision to restrict other groups. “It’s their thing. They can make their own rules.”

Except for brief opening and closing ceremonies, there will be no public events in connection with the exhibit. Just the nonstop reading of the 58,209 names of American soldiers who died, with a bell tolling for each life.

The opening ceremony will be organized by the host committee. The closing ceremony is being organized by Fairchild Air Force Base head chaplain Col. Dan Armstrong.

He’s resorting to tried and true military regulations regarding ecumenical services.

“There will be six community representatives from the six major faith communities that comprise the United States,” he said. Those are: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Buddhist. “The other criteria is, if they have someone who is a Vietnam vet and an ordained clergy (member), that is who we would prefer.”

Several of the religious leaders participating in the closing ceremony have connections to the war. The Catholic representative is the Rev. Jo Hien, a priest who left Vietnam as a boat refugee in 1975.

“The key element is this is a service for everyone,” Armstrong said.

That may be the critical attribute of the memorial itself. While the Washington, D.C., monument evoked bitter feuding during its planning and construction, it has since become one of the most popular attractions in the nation’s capital.

The three traveling replicas have become equally popular. Chewelah expects 50,000 people to see it during a weeklong stay that begins at 2 p.m. today. Spokane organizers are expecting up to 100,000 visitors.

In addition to veterans and families of veterans, war protesters and draft dodgers visit the monument with equal sorrow and reverence. It’s an emotional experience, too, for refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

“We are very grateful for those who died,” the Rev. Hien said. “But that gratitude is mixed with feelings of pain and betrayal.”

There are roughly 5,000 Vietnamese immigrants in the Inland Northwest.

“The wall can cut across a lot of boundaries,” Gonzaga professor Large said. “People can go to the wall because they thought what the U.S. was doing in Vietnam was the right thing. Or they can go for exactly the opposite reason.

“So you can have two people standing right next to each other for very different reasons. And that’s the key.”

That’s why it’s often called the Wall of Healing, said Tim Welsh, one of the veterans organizing the exhibit. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers in the late ‘60s, then came home and went to the University of Washington during the height of the war protests.

“Because I did a lot of work with the Vietnamese, I came to realize that the ideologies of capitalism and communism meant very little to the person in the field trying to grow rice,” he said.

For a few, the wounds will never heal.

Colliton said he has talked to veterans who are angry that Turner’s cable TV company is sponsoring the exhibit.

“I told them, ‘You’ve got the wrong idea about the wall,”’ Colliton said. “And if you are going to go to your grave with that hatred in your heart, then the wall probably won’t be any help to you.”

WALL EVENTS A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is on 24-hour display at Chewelah’s Janke Park from 2 p.m. today until Saturday. A second replica of the wall will be at the Spokane Arena May 28-31 and at Guy Wicks Field at the University of Idaho in Moscow, June 3-8.

THE EVENT Except for brief opening and closing ceremonies, there will be no public events in connection with the exhibit. Just the nonstop reading of the 58,209 names of American soldiers who died, with a bell tolling for each life.