Near the end of a weeklong national salute to Americans who
served in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial 
was dedicated in Washington, D.C. after a march to its site by
thousands of veterans of the conflict. The memorial was a 
simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the
names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict,
arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in
other memorials.