By PHILIP KENNICOTT | The Washington Post | Published: April 30, 2021
In Washington, memorials to the major wars of the 20th century were built in inverse order. First came the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in 1982, followed by the Korean War Veterans Memorial in 1995 and the National World War II Memorial in 2004. Earlier this month, the oldest of the four major wars of the past century, World War I, was honored with the newest memorial, a plaza with fountains and, at some point in the future, a formidably scaled bronze sculpture by artist Sabin Howard.
The new memorial is an efficient if not entirely successful repurposing of Pershing Park, where a statue of the general who led American troops during World War I was dedicated in 1983. Promoters of a national World War I memorial argued that neither a statue devoted to John J. Pershing nor the modest but beloved bandshell on the Mall (which honors District residents who died in the war) was sufficient to keep alive the memory of national sacrifice during this country's third-bloodiest war. Nor was the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City an adequate substitute for a national memorial in the country's capital. So they proposed refurbishing Pershing Park (a sunken, trapezoidal green spot on Pennsylvania Avenue) to honor both Pershing and the troops he led.