The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., dedicated in November 1982, is located in Constitution Gardens just off the north-east corner of the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial is composed of two adjoining walls, which have inscribed on them the names of over 58,000 servicemen and women who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam conflict. The walls taper from 8 inches tall at their extremities to over 10 feet tall at the apex where they meet, their bottom edges descending below the level of the surrounding earth while their top edges stay level. The memorial now includes the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall, the Three Servicemen statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial and the In Memory plaque. It is one of the most visited war memorials in the United States and attracts more than 5 million visitors annually. We are interested in understanding the religious threads, if there be any, that are part of the fabric of this stunning and meaningful memorial.

Season 3, Episode 33 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Guest Bio

Arnold E. Resnicoff was born in Washington, DC and attended Dartmouth College where he studied drama. Arnie then served a tour in Vietnam, including as part of "Operation Game Warden," the campaign to keep the rivers free of Viet Cong infiltrators. After the war he became a rabbi then a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, serving in that position for twenty-five years. Chaplain Resnicoff was part of the small group of veterans who worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, delivering the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. He was in Beirut on that fateful day when the Marine barracks were bombed on October 23rd, 1983. His eyewitness report, written at the request of the White House, was read in full by President Ronald Reagan as a keynote speech to the 20,000 attendees of Jerry Falwell's "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention. Arnie was the first Jewish chaplain to attend the Naval War College, and the first chaplain of any faith to teach a course there (or at any military war college), "Faith and Force: Religion, War, and Peace." He served as Command Chaplain for the US European Command, the "top chaplain" for US chaplains of all faiths in all branches of the armed forces in all of Europe and most of Africa. Arnie has offered more prayers to open sessions of the House and Senate as guest chaplain than any other rabbi in history. After retirement from the Navy, he served as National Director for Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Special Assistant for Values and Vision to the Secretary and Chief-of-Staff of the U.S. Air Force, a position that carried with it the military equivalent rank of brigadier general. 

Arnie gave a prayer at the November 13, 1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which you can watch here: https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-1982-vietnam-veterans-memorial-dedication-closing-prayer/3724411

Jim Knotts is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), the nonprofit organization that built The Wall in 1982. He is an Air Force veteran of the Persian Gulf War and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. For the past 10 years, he has led the efforts at VVMF to honor the service and sacrifices of Vietnam veterans. Jim previously worked in industry at Lockheed Martin headquarters, where he was Director of Corporate Citizenship, including philanthropy and community outreach, and Director of Web Communications. During his almost ten years in the Air Force, his career spanned service in the Persian Gulf War, at the headquarters of U.S. Southern Command, and in the Pentagon on the Office of the Secretary of Defense Staff.

Podcast Support

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion.