What objections were raised and how were compromises made to Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial we see on the mall today?

One of the objections raised was the selection of Maya Lin
as the artist.  She was only 21 years old and a student at Yale. She designed a
v-shaped, sunken wall of black stone engraved with the names of those killed in action. 
The fact that she was young, a woman, Asian-American and that her design did not look
like a traditional war memorial added to the
controversy.

Veterans were especially vocal about the
design.  They believed that it looked like a "black scar hidden in a hole, as if out of
shame."  They wanted to change the color to white and add a sculpture of wounded
soldiers and a flag in the center.  The protesters, which included a congressman and the
Secretary of the Interior, issued an ultimatum:  make the changes or the project won't
be built.

In the end, a compromise was reached.  The wall
remained black and the sculpture and flag pole were incorporated two years after its
dedication (1982), but off to the side.  In 1993, a second statute commemorating women
who served in Vietnam goes up beside it.

 
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