The Wall Began With $144.50

In the spring of 1979, a wounded Vietnam infantry veteran named Jan Scruggs announced a fund to build a national memorial. Five weeks later it had raised $144.50, and a network anchor told the country so. More than 275,000 donors later paid for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, known to everyone as the Wall.

One Veteran's $2,800

Scruggs served with the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. On May 28, 1969, a rocket-propelled grenade wounded him in the back, right arm and both legs, and he received the Purple Heart.

He came home and studied counseling, focused on the struggles Vietnam veterans faced after the war. By 1979 he was convinced the country needed a memorial to the people who served.

He put $2,800 of his own money into forming the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which was incorporated on April 27, 1979. He announced it at a Memorial Day press conference.

The Newscast

A newswire story ran after the announcement. Five weeks later, only $144.50 had been raised.

On July 4, 1979, CBS anchor Roger Mudd reported that fact at the end of a national newscast. A 1983 Fund publication preserved in the Reagan Library says what looked like a fizzled attempt became a "startling beginning".

John Wheeler, a Washington lawyer and Vietnam veteran, saw the report and joined the effort as a volunteer.

275,000 Donors

The fund was soon bringing in donations from individuals, veterans' groups, corporations, foundations and unions. In the end more than 275,000 donors paid for the memorial, and no federal funds went into its construction.

Congress did help in one important way. It passed legislation in 1980 authorizing a site of about two acres in Constitution Gardens, beside the National Mall, so the government supplied the ground while the donations paid for the building.

The Wall Today

The memorial was dedicated on November 13, 1982, about three and a half years after the fund began. It held 57,939 names that day.

Names have been added over the years, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund reports that the Wall now carries more than 58,000 names. The National Park Service looks after the site, which counted about five million visits a year in recent years (5.04 million in 2023).

It began with a newscast that made a hopeful appeal sound like a failure. It now stands as a memorial that strangers built together.