by Jason Cain
I am the person who, in 1979, proposed the idea for what would become the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. This idea came out of my work at American University in graduate school, when I studied and became a recognized authority on what is now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I earned credentials as an “authority” by publishing articles in the Washington Post and Military Medicine and testifying before a Senate Subcommittee. I was also an infantry veteran of the war.