John P. Wheeler Ill served as Chair of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
The photographs in this volume include beautiful images of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Much of their beauty comes from the reflective quality of the Memorial's black granite wall.
During the creation of the Memorial, a series of unexpected and graceful turns of events occurred. These events combined to make the Memorial a powerful symbol and instrument of healing.
Before construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, those of us working on the project knew the wall would be shiny and reflective. But no one anticipated the sharp, true, and expansive mirror quality of the wall. The high polish of the black granite surface reflects blue sky, green trees, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Dome, the Lincoln Memorial, and the expressive faces of visitors who approach the Wall.
The power of a mirror image lies in the fact that it shows us as others see us. Confronting such an image often leads us to peer inside ourselves: "Oh, that image isn't the real me . . . or, "I look so sad . . . and that is how I feel." Reflections thus reveal us to each other and to ourselves.
With great power, the images in this book reveal Americans to themselves, in faces that express pride of service, woundedness, grief, hope, and commitment to live up to the best that was in the lives of the Americans who gave their lives in Vietnam.
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