The American public became bitterly divided about how to proceed in Vietnam, and antiwar demonstrations took place across the country. Instead, the war turned into a bloody stalemate. involvement in the war failed to defeat the Communists. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson (see entry) sent American combat troops to join the fight on the side of South Vietnam.īut deepening U.S. government sent money, weapons, and military advisors to help South Vietnam defend itself. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the U.S. government officials felt that a Communist government in Vietnam would increase the power of the Soviet Union and threaten the security of the United States. North Vietnam wanted to overthrow the South Vietnamese government and reunite the two countries under one Communist government. The Vietnam War was a conflict between the Communist nation of North Vietnam and the U.S.-supported nation of South Vietnam. Back in the United States for her senior year, one of her professors told her about a competition to design a memorial to the Americans who had died in the Vietnam War. She spent one semester studying in Europe, where she visited some of the best-known examples of architecture in Paris, London, and Athens, Greece. She had always considered herself to be an artist, and she viewed architecture as art on a large scale. In her junior year Lin decided to concentrate her studies on architecture (the design of buildings). 'I've always been intrigued with death, and man's reaction to it,' she commented in a New York Times interview. When she needed a break from her studies, she often walked through an old cemetery near the center of town. During her first two years at Yale, she took a variety of liberal arts courses.

She enjoyed the challenging academic environment, as well as the beautiful campus in New Haven, Connecticut. Lin has described Yale as the first place she ever felt truly comfortable and at home. Lin became valedictorian of her high school class, and she was accepted into prestigious Yale University upon graduation in 1977. She had no interest in the high school social scene and preferred to spend her time reading or studying mathematics. She was an excellent student, but she sometimes had trouble fitting in with other people her age. She also enjoyed walking in the woods near her home and connecting with nature. Henry Lin was an artist and taught art history, while Julia Lin was a poet and taught literature.Īs a girl, Maya Lin loved to work with her hands, making pottery, ceramics, and sculptures. When Lin's parents met, they both worked as professors at Ohio University in Athens. They immigrated to the United States in the late 1940s, after a Communist government came to power in China. Both of her parents, Henry Huan Lin and Julia Chang Lin, came from prominent Chinese families. She was raised in a household that was full of art and literature. Maya Ying Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio.

Since then, it has become the most visited site in Washington, D.C. But soon after the memorial was dedicated in 1982, the American people embraced it as a powerful and moving tribute to the fallen soldiers. Her winning design-a long, V-shaped wall of polished black marble engraved with the names of the American soldiers killed in Vietnam-created a great deal of controversy at first. American architect and artist who designed theĪs a twenty-one-year-old architecture student at Yale University, Maya Lin won a competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Maya ying lin artwork