Notes
notes Introduction 1. William E. Schmidt, “One Man’s Memorial: Father Builds Chapel for His Son and All Vietnam War Dead,” Dallas Morning News, November 14, 1982. 2. Paul Logan, “A Man, a Memorial, an Obsession,” Impact: Albuquerque (NM) Journal Magazine, May 22, 1984; Alice Bullock, “Peace and Brotherhood Symbolized in Chapel,” Santa Fe Pasatiempo, October 25, 1970; Sis and Eric Braun to Victor Westphall, March 1, [1973], AFP; Tad Bartimus, “Monument to Son Killed in Vietnam Consumes Father,” Sunday Oregonian, April 25, 1982. For a full description of the building , see Victor Westphall, “The DAV [Disabled American Veterans] Vietnam Veterans National Memorial: A Brief History,” News from DAV Vietnam Veterans National Memorial, November 1990, 4. 3. Corinne Brown, Casualty (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981), 50–51. 4. Victor Westphall built a construction business from scratch during the Great Depression, while obtaining a Ph.D. in history. At Milwaukee Teachers’ College, where he obtained his B.A., he was the light heavyweight champion in boxing and wrestling, and a star in football. He published several works about New Mexico history and was the president of the New Mexico Historical Society in the 1960s. “Albuquerque Home Builder Uses Spare Time to Win PhD in History,” Albuquerque Tribune, June 9, 1956; biographical clippings file at the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Public Library. 5. Victor Westphall, “Report Addendum,” November 30, 1984; Victor Westphall, David’s Story: A Casualty of Vietnam (Springer, NM: Center for the Advancement of Human Dignity, 1981), 5, 149–50, AFP. 6. William E. Schmidt, “On Barren Hill, a Father’s Memorial to Son Killed in Vietnam,” New York Times, November 13, 1982. 7. Brown, Casualty, 207; “Father of Fallen Marine Builds Memorial to All U.S. Casualties,” West Texas Livestock Weekly, September 10, 1970; “Hippies Build Chapel to Slain Marine,” Binghamton (NY) Sun-Bulletin, May 22, 1971; Patrick Lamb, “N.M. Father Honors Vietnam War Victim with Chapel Dedicated to Peace,” El Paso Herald-Post, May 22, 1971. 8. Westphall was a record-breaking weight-lifter who also held a national time trials bicycle-racing title for his age range. These feats demonstrate the determination and drive with which Westphall approached everything. See, e.g., “The Man behind the Vietnam Memorial,” Sangre de Cristo (Angel Fire, NM) Chronicle, May 22, 1986; “Westphall Wins Three Golds at World Senior Olympics,” Raton (NM) Range, March 25, 1988. 9. Betty Burroughs, “Once Upon Paper,” Wilmington (DE) Morning News, November 26, 1970. 10. Victor Westphall to President Nixon, November 29, 1970; Mark O. Hatfield, U.S. senator from Oregon, to Victor Westphall, September 17, 1970, Westphall personal files; Richard Nixon to Victor Westphall, July 15, 1971, quoted in Victor Westphall, Vietnam: The Hinge of Destiny (1972) (self-published pamphlet in AFP), ii. Westphall’s personal files in AFP contain copies of his correspondence with U.S. political leaders. 11. Laura Palmer, Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (New York: Vintage, 1987), xv. 12. Victor Westphall, What Have THEY Done to MY World (East Brunswick, NJ: Cornwall Books, 1981), 141–44, 150–52. 13. Denise Kusel, “Like a Bridge over Troubled Water,” Santa Fe Reporter, “Santa Fe Style” section, May 25, 1983. 14. Richard L. Schoenwald, “Dying for Nothing,” essay accompanying a letter to Victor Westphall, June 22, 1972; Victor Westphall, “The Vietnam Veterans Peace and Brotherhood Chapel,” [December 1971], AFP; Dick McAlpin, “Vietnam Memorial in Moreno Valley,” Albuquerque Tribune, April 29, 1971. 15. Westphall, David’s Story, 27, 51, 55; Victor Westphall, interview by the author, July 29, 1992. 16. Linda Vaughan, interview by the author, July 23, 1992; Westphall, interview. 435 436 Notes to Pages 5–8 17. In a television interview, Victor Westphall tearfully recited his son’s writings, revealing that he spoke them to himself every day. The last two lines of the poem, inscribed at the entrance to the Angel Fire Memorial, “So man learned to shed the tears / With which he measures out his years” are very different when spoken in Victor Westphall’s voice, for they remind one of his decades-long vigil in his son’s memory. When the interviewer said to him, “You must have been very close,” Westphall took the pronoun you to be singular, not plural as the interviewer must have intended it, and replied, “Yes, I was,” whereas the logical response would have been, “Yes, we were.” Larry Woods, “Across America,” CNN cable newscast about the memorial at Angel Fire, February 3, 1992. The odd response...
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