“The Vietnam Veterans Memorial… could be one of the most important works of contemporary architecture in official Washington—and perhaps the only one that will provide a contemplative space of the equal of any in the past.”

~ Paul Goldberger, The New York Times

“For the dead whom few wanted to remember after a war few could forget, a woman who was four years old when the first bodies came home has designed a national memorial to be built on the Mall.”

~ Henry Allen, The Washington Post

"Even more than its straightforwardness, the beauty of her idea is its aesthetic and emotional balance. There are admirable sides to many of the designs in this show, but none of them so succinctly responds to the competition requirement that 'the memorial design should be contemplative and reflective in character.' "​​​​​​​

~Benjamin Forgey, The Washington Post

''We want a statue and a flagpole, too, right at the apex of the memorial. The flag is what we fought for, isn't it?''

~ Donald Sherman, a Vietnam veteran

"Letters from outraged veterans poured into the Memorial Fund office. One claimed that Lin’s design had 'the warmth and charm of an Abyssinian dagger.' 'Nihilistic aesthetes' had chosen it. The proposal reflected the true situation of the Vietnam veteran: 'bury the dead and ignore the needs of the living.' An Army major called it 'just a black wall that expresses nothing.' "

~ Jim Reston Jr., A Rift in the Earth

" 'For too long the veterans of that miserable conflict have borne the burden of the national ambivalence about the war,' wrote one critic. 'To bury them now in a black stone sarcophagus, sunk into a hollow in the earth below eye level, is like spitting on their graves.' "

~ Erin Blakemore, History.Com