Create a National World war i memorial in washington dc. Thepresentative from centennial commissions spoke recently at the National Press club about the plan. This is 45 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the National Press club. We are very fortunate to have mr. Edwin discuss the world war one memorial. I am your moderator with the National Press club. We have the eisenhower memorial controversy now. That has been going on for years and we have no idea when the eisenhower memorial is being built. We have several other memorials but not a world war i memorial, and therefore there is much excitement about this project. Just a few words about our speaker, edwin fountain, the grandson of not one, but two world war i veterans. He cofounded the world war i Memorial Foundation. This led to the advocacy of a National World war i memorial on the mall in july, 2013. Mr. Fountain was appointed by Senate Majority leader harry reid to the u. S. World war i centennial commission. He was elected vicechairman of the commission in july, 2014. Mr. Fountain is a graduate of the university of north carolina, and the university of virginia law school. [applause] thank you, tony. And good morning. My name is edwin fountain. I am vicechairman of the u. S. World war i centennial commission. The commission was formed by congress in january, 2013 and given a mission of ensuring suitable observation in this country of a centennial of this great war, and more importantly, commemorating the service of american servicemen and women in educating the public about this causes and consequences of that war. It has 12 members, appointed the president , the majority and minority leaders of both houses of congress. Im here this morning to talk about the commissions proposal to establish a new National World war i memorial in the Nations Capital. I would like to start with some brief context about the history of this memorial and its wars. The town is full of equestrian and other statues to civil war and other revolutionary war generals, other political leaders. Pershing park, where referred where we proposed to establish editorial is sort of the last of the great memorials in the city, erected to john j pershing. After the civil war, many around the country established memorials to those who died and fought in their wars for stop in their wars. There is the statue of the confederate soldier on washington street in Old Town Alexandria here. The d. C. War memorial is a local memorial to world war i. It was not until the 1970s that we began thinking in terms of National War Memorials, and not to the generals, but to the common soldiers in our Nations Capital. The Vietnam Veterans memorial is a game changer in memorials in this country. A memorial on the mall to the everyday soldier who fought and died in that war. We have been backfilling ever since after the Vietnam Veterans memorial. Then came the korean Veterans Memorial and world war ii. Now here we are talking about world war i. The difference with world war i is there is no littering no living constituency. The last living veteran of world war i passed away at the age of 110. There is not the representation of veterans in congress or on boards. Its a difficult challenge for us, but one we think we can meet. I got involved in this effort some years ago when i decided to advocate for restoration of the d. C. War memorial on the mall, which had fallen into disrepair. That effort led the talking about rededicating led to talking about ridiculous thing that effort led to talking about rededicating the National Mall. Working from a blank slate, the commission thinks we would be on the mall. The congress enacted some years ago to establish the memorial and the nation capital. And one clause provides that it is a completed work of civic art and that there will be no museums or Visitors Centers on the mall except those that are grandfathered in, such as the world war ii memorial, the monitored and king junior the Martin Luther king jr. Memorial, and others. I fought for a couple of years to get a National War Memorial on the mall, but the d. C. Government leadership, norton and grey were strongly opposed. The National Park service that were stewards of the mall were opposed to the proposal. When it came time to the commission, to think about it more a war memorial, we decided not to fight a losing battle by being on the mall. We decided redevelopment of pershing park. It is located just one block away from the National Press club. You can see the picture on the upper left. That is an overhead shot. Pershing park is bounded on the southern edge by pennsylvania avenue and up across the street from the department of commerce. It is between 14th and 15th streets and the Northern Edge of the park is next to the Willard Hotel and the occidental restaurant. It is a prime location. It is part of what is the most significant concourse the Nations Capital, pennsylvania avenue. From pershing park, you have a direct line of sight down to the capitol dome. It is one block away from the white house and treasury department. It is a symbolically important location, which is why was chosen in the first place as a memorial to john pershing. And it has received a lot of foot traffic for people visiting the white house and other sites in this part of town. It is located just a few blocks off the mall. It is a highly important location, one that we think merits a significant memorial and one that we think would do justice to the veterans of world war i. Again, we preferred the mall, but we played the cards we were dealt. There are serious drawbacks to the memorial site. There are first of all, it is the park with a world war i commemorative element located in it. As you can see, the pershing memorial is tucked away in the lower right corner of that photograph, on the southeast corner of that site. That part of the park is very of secured from obscured from the street. There are earthen berms topped by 10 foot stone walls on that part of the park. From the passerby, there is nothing inviting from the park, nothingness is world war i or pershing memorial. There is nothing that draws you in. The deed of sides of the park accessible to passersby are the western edge at the far edge of where the memorial element is. As you look in the park from 15th street, you dont see the memorial component. On the north edge, there is the taxi stand and a line of parking spots that service the willard and other restaurants and hotels. It is very uninviting to passersby. There is nothing that draws you in. The second drawback to the current site is it is a History Lesson more than a memorial. You see this wall. Very good maps and nice narrative text about the involvement of the United States in world war i. But there is no mention in the text of the servicemen who gave their lives turned the war. There is no mention of the fact the combat fatality rate in five months of fighting in world war i was twice that of world war ii. Thee was no mention that United States suffered more fatalities in five months than three years in korea or eight years of active combat in vietnam. When i testified on the hill a few months ago on the bill that would authorize this memorial, there was testimony on a bill to add a feature to the korean war memorial. Saiddvocate for that bill with great emphasis that inquiry lost in korea, america 1000 minimum. In world war i, we lost 10,000 in the month. What people in this country do not know about world war i is what a bloody and savage war it was. They dont understand that american serviceman demonstrated in same valor and heroism world war i that they have in every other war this country fought. Part of the mission is to educate the American People about that in addition to the broader geopolitical aspects of the war. Memorial the memorial there now is very unemotional. Of generalstatue pershing with a pair of binoculars in his hands. He is not even riding a horse. With all the respect the designers of the memorial, it is a static, passive memorial that lacks any real pesos or humanity or humanity. You compared to the Vietnam Memorial or the platoon of soldiers at the correia memorial or the tableaux at the grant memorial. Each of those conveys something about the humanity of the warfare. This one, frankly, does not trade it is a memorial to general pershing but not much else. Those are some criticisms of the current site and why we think it needs to be not just redesignated as a National World war i manorial the bush memorial but redeveloped. Right now, it is a part that happens to have a world war i commemorative feature. Our objective is to make it a world war i memorial located in an urban park setting. Alive to the fact this should be a working urban park. In my view, there will be three groups of people that will come to this memorial. Irst, the world war enthusiasts who want to convey their respects to the veterans of world war i. Second, the guests and other visitors who live or come to that part of town and want a nice urban oasis for lunch or to just take a breather. Third, we hope that they will be here to see an iconic work of art, that will draw people in its own right, regardless of theme. That is our vision for the memorial. We have the sense not to have a preconceived notion of what a design of this park would be as a new memorial. We anticipate and have already begun planning for a Design Competition. We anticipate tony mentioned the eisenhower memorial. Im not involved in that process, but i have followed it to some extent. Suffice it to say, we will do things differently that have been done with the eisenhower memorial. I anticipate that the commission will throw this open to an open Design Competition, much as was done with the Vietnam Memorial that yielded that stunning and surprising design that really change the ground with respect to memorials in this country, and in the world indeed. That competition will most likely involve two rounds of competition, and open competition from which we will select a handful of finalists, and given stipends to further develop their designs. It will be an independent panel of jurors that will make recommendations to the commission on the selection of the finalists and the winning design. It will be the commissions choice. Again, the commission has the sense to know that we are not design experts and its not our place to proofing to preconceived what the design will look like. It is also our intention to engage the many stakeholders in this tomorrow, and in this site in this memorial and the site at the very outset of the process, so we can tell entrance ts into the competition, give them clear parameters of what needs to be there and not be there, what field we are looking for the site, what other uses besides memorial uses will be provided by the site, how it will relate to Freedom Plaza across the street and the surrounding neighborhood. Its a very complex site given this location, and it will all a lot of thought will be required at the outset. Conversations with National Parks and the National Planning commission, fine arts, neighbors around the park, veterans groups, many stakeholders so we have an objective before we start the competition. Theres currently no budget for the site other than what we have done on the back of envelope. The world war ii and Martin Luther king memorials each were about 100 million. I dont believe we could raise 100 million for a world war i memorial. As do we envision something elaborate as the world war ii memorial. D. C. Warback to the memorial which i fell in love with precisely because it was a place removed from the hustle and bustle of the city around it. It is that contemplative feel i would like to recreate in a world war i memorial. This will not be a triumphant memorial because there was nothing triumphant about world war i. We do not envision a complex memorial. Our working budget for this, this is back of the envelope, so i dont want to hear two years from now that we have exceeded our budget. It is about 10 million to 15 million. If we go much beyond that, we go beyond our purposes, and beyond what is realistic as far as our ambitions for fundraising. Ambitious. E is it is remarkable that the Vietnam Memorial was completed from start to finish in a matter 28 months. That is nearly impossible in todays environment. We have a little over four years. We hope to dedicate this on Armistice Day 2018. It would be the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended world war i. We anticipate conducting the Design Competition through most of 2015, working on getting the necessary design approvals from the various reviewing agencies during 2016. Spending 2017 sending drawings to engineers. Completing and dedicating the memorial by veterans day 2018. Q four years is a tight timeframe for a memorial of this significance, but we think if we do the work right up front, we can make the process go quickly and efficiently and yield a memorial that will stand the test of time and do proper justice to the American Veterans of world war i. This ultimately was we hear a lot about the greatest generation. This is what i call the silent generation. They were the parents of the greatest generation. They suffered through two great calamities, world war i, and the great depression. And then they sent their sons and daughters off to fight in world war ii. Again, this goes back to why this is not a triumphant memorial, but something more somber and reflective and reverential, that would do justice to a generation of americans that was largely not recognized in this country, certainly not by todays generations for the contributions and sacrifices they made for this country. That is our proposal and our plan. Again, i should say a word about the pending legislation if i havent. We have introduced a bill to authorize the commission to proceed with this proposal. Bills were introduced simultaneously in the house and senate this year on a bipartisan basis. We are very grateful to representative Daniel Cleaver of the last Emanuel Cleaver of kansas city and senators mccaskill and blunt of missouri, who have been our champions of this effort, along with congressman ted poe from texas, who was involved with a world war i memorial efforts for some years. They have carried the water with us. Senator rockefeller has been of great assistance as well, as have others. Bills were introduced in both houses on bipartisan basis. The house bill was passed as an amendment to the defense appropriation bill earlier this year. It has already been approved by the house. Hearings have been held in the senate a couple of months ago. It is anticipated that the if the senate does not pass the appropriations bill, the memorial will move forward possibly as a standalone bill and get passed by this house. There is no significant opposition to the proposal. All of the major agencies are on board and have come out publicly in support of the proposal. I talked to your neighbor, oliver carr, a few weeks ago and they are very engaged as well. Oliver carr owns the hotel. This is easy. The problem is, i guess, couple of months ago when i was testifying before a house panel on this, the chairman of that subcommittee said to another group who was also testifying that day, he said, youve got a real problem. This bill makes sense and is the right thing to do, and we dont do things that way up here. [laughter] that is my one concern appear that is my one concern about this. I dont have to tell you all about how things work on capitol hill. Even the easy stuff is hard. But it is the right thing to do. Time is of the essence. With the attention that the centennial that the start of the war has brought just in the past few weeks, we think we are optimistic that it will pass and we will be moving forward. [applause] we now have time for questions. Can you please give your name and identify [indiscernible] [indiscernible] is this the war memorial in First Washington that has ever done without one single veteran still alive . Why has this taken 100 years . Why was this not done a long time ago . To the first part of your question, i cannot speak whether memorials whether there were memorials of the war of 1812 or the spanishamerican conflicts after all of the veterans had passed. As to why it has taken so long, again, the idea of memorials of this sort is only 30yearold idea. It was the Vietnam Veterans. I should say the good citizens of kansas city, missouri did erect a memorial soon after world war i not just to the veterans of kansas city, but to the nations veterans. There has been a National Memorial for quite some time but , in kansas city. And with all due respect to kansas city, its not the Nations Capital and does not draw the International Visitors that the city does. At the idea of a nations but the idea of a National Memorial in the Nations Capital only goes back 30 years. The Vietnam Veterans advocated and established their memorial and we have been working back. We did world war ii, now were getting to world war i. We used to commemorate wars primarily locally, or on the battlefields themselves. That cannot be done with respect to the wars of the 20th century. Alan flavor, National Press club. The National Gallery in london has an art exhibit commemorating the devastation of world war i. What is being done in this country that will help educate and reeducate the American Public along similar lines and to help build a growing consensus for and support for your memorial . Many different things. The commemoration of the centennial in this country is unfolding in classic American Fashion in two respects. One, as with world war i itself, we are late to the party. The europeans have been planning for their centennial efforts for much longer and have been dedicating more significant resources than this country has. And that makes sense, because it was much more a European Experience than it was an American Experience for many obvious reasons. The war was fought there for four years, whereas we fought for five months. Their loss of life was significantly greater than ours. It was fought largely over european causes. We were drawn into the war by attacks on u. S. Interests. In the second, the grassroots basis. It is being done very much on the grassroots basis. Congress in its wisdom formed no commission, gave us charter and no resources. Because that is how they establish memorials and great events, by calling on private citizens to use their own dime. Part of our mission is to reach out around the country and encourage support of other organizations that are engaged in world war i centennial activities. Much of what we have been doing in our initial months have been building that network. The gratifying thing is that so Many Organizations are out there doing so many things on their own without encouragement from us. The New York Public Library has an exhibit that certain on july started on july 28 regarding the war. I was at a planning meeting hosted by the academy of fine arts that will be putting on what will be a definitive exhibition on world war i american art. Kronos quartet, which is the somewhat avantgarde Classical Music group, has already performed a symphony of their own composition on world war i. The Kansas City Company is working on a symphony as well. There are groups around the country. One of our volunteers for the commission is spearheading the world war i memorial inventory project, which sets out to document every world war i memorial in the country, call attention to them, aid in their restoration, get the local citizens to research the names on those memorials. Glenn marcus is working on a major conference of documentary on americans involvement in world war i. There are a lot of people doing a lot of things. We are trying to coordinate with them and take credit for is much of what they are doing as possible, but also spearheading our own efforts. We have already held our first conference on world war i where we had a panel talking about the war here in washington. The University Club in tonight is hosting the first in a series of programs on various aspects of world war i. We are working to put on a conference in on military 2016 aspects of world war i. We are working on a conference possibly next year focusing on the events that drew the United States into war, including the media aspects of how things like the lusitania sinking affect and other events were covered. There are a lot of things going on. Of going to axury crescendo of event in 2017, 2018, which will mark americas participation in the actual events of the war. Im curious if you got any feedback on this proposal. Not specifically. I have been in touch with the district of columbias historic Reservation Office and they have been supportive. The state historic pReservation Officer also sits on the National CapitalMemorial Advisory commission. That commission has signed off unanimously in support of this proposal. To that extent the district of , columbia has been heard. I believe delegate norton has previously spoken in support on this site delegate norton has spoken in support of the site, but we have not spoken specifically. But ive never heard of any opposition and id be surprised to hear any. Other questions . I have one for you. According to the washington post, we have about 4 million visitors to the world war ii memorial. Do you have any estimates of how many planned here . The National Mall is unique. Everyone wants to be on the mall to take advantage of the foot traffic. I dont anticipate 4 million. Were right across the street from where people go to the white house. Think there is significant traffic coming by the site anyway. We think we can draw people here. I dont have an estimate on numbers. It wont be what is on the mall, but we think it will be significant. Can you talk about your own involvement . You said you had grandfathers in the war. Talk about what they did. One of them never got out of this country. He went through officer training, but never came out of the United States. My other grandfather, my grandfather fountain, grew up on a farm in north carolina, new knew how to handle horses, so they made him an artillery man. He was in the artillery regiment. He was scheduled to go on the front lines on november 12. Perhaps i am standing here today because he never got to the front lines. But he was, i believe, at least an alternate delegate. He was mustered out in 1919. No Great Stories of heroism in my family, and friendly, thats frankly, that is not how i got involved in this. That is more incidental. I came to this effort from an Historic Preservation background. I was formerly the president of the d. C. Preservation league, which is a group here in washington. We had featured the d. C. War memorial a number of times in our programs because it had fallen into rate disrepair. There was at one point a sapling growing out of the top of the memorial and it had become very water damaged, and the paving around it had become very difficult to pass. Some years ago in 2008, i formed a world war i Memorial Foundation whose regional original purpose was simply to advocate for funds for restoration of that memorial. I will take credit, and i think the park service will give me credit for bringing enough public attention to the condition of the d. C. War memorial that when the park Service Received 500 billion in 500 million in stimulus funds for Capital Projects and all of the park units around the country competed for the money within the park service, restoration of the d. C. More war memorial rose to the top of that list, as well as the reflecting pool and the jefferson memorial. In working with the d. C. War memorial, given where its located and if you dont know, its on the National Mall right between the world war ii and korean Veterans Memorials right off of independence avenue and across the street from the mlk memorial. You stand at that memorial and you cannot help but look around and see memorials to the three other great wars in this the brush in the 20th century and cannot help but wonder why there is nothing for world war i. My sense of symmetry was offended, if nothing else. That led me to advocacy for a National War Memorial on the mall. Through those efforts, that is how i got appointed to the centennial commission. Is is the first time you are announcing the Design Competition . Is this open . Not open yet. We just this week sent out solicitations for a professional advisor for the Design Competition. Most Design Competitions are not actually run by the commission sponsoring the memorial, but they usually engage some other architect or other professional to serve as an advisor. We are in the process of hiring that individual. We expect to throw this open sometime in the First Quarter of 2015. Other questions . You mentioned what word in oliver carr. What efforts are being done to publicize this as the processes others suchd with as with the Current Trump hotel or the post office as well as with d. C. Officials . We have been in touch with the dpw. In fact, i think the picture on the right has been taken from the rooftop restaurant of the w hotel. We have reached out to the marriott. We havent heard from them yet. We will definitely be inviting the trumps to our initial planning meetings, for what should be obvious reasons. And certainly, all of the neighbors. We have even been in touch with the secret service already, because of course the inaugural parade goes right by the site. We dont have specific plans on publicizing it yet because we are not there yet. This is sort of step one, where we are today. We are certainly talking it up every chance we have will stop every chance we have. Once we have an advisor on board, our first step will be to sit down with all of the stakeholders, and that will certainly include the d. C. Government. One of americas most Popular Military related films is sergeant york, which portrays what happened with the drafting and induction and service of alan york, one of the most popular movies of its type ever. There are other films as well. Is there any plan to consider using those in helping to educate the public about what happened . To some extent, that has already happened. Turner classic movies did a Film Festival on world war i throughout the month of july. Every friday during july they had world war i movie programming. The commission itself has no plans beyond that. We are beginning to make contacts in hollywood to talk about new feature films. Ive always said that what world war needs is the ken burns treatment and the saving private ryan treatment. We have a few projects in the works. It was announced some time ago that Leonardo Dicaprio will be wilson in arow biography. I dont know how much that would focus on in an adaptation of scott bergs biography. But on how much that will focus on world war i. There is a celebrated unit of African American soldiers that served with great distinction during the war, as well as in europe. Also in during the racism of the American Military and political establishment of that time. Our understanding is that novel has been optioned by Sony Pictures and will smith. I look forward to sitting down across the table from will smith and asking him how he would like to be the tom hanks of world war i. Something like that, particularly given who he is, a major production like that would do more than anything the commission could do over the next four years to bring awareness and interest to world war i. That is the nature of our society. Our mission is to penetrate the american consciousness through every channel possible, whether through fine art or other or education. The History Channel has already featurestwo prime time this year on world war i. There are also ways to introduce content to secondary and primary education. There are so many different ways to bring people into world war i. We hope to deploy all of them. Questions, i have another one. Has any consideration been given to the fact that the pershing memorial will go down as the eisenhower memorial goes up and general pershing will be rolling over in his grave . First of all, i dont know that pershing will be leaving the site. That is a discussion we have not had yet. That will be a question, but i dont even know how i would answer that question. That is something we will engage the stakeholders with, and we will certainly be engaging general pershings family on that. It is interesting. I talked earlier about the great man approach to memorials, and eisenhower is very much a great man approach. And you can quibble with that, whether that is the proper thematic approach. The Roosevelt Memorial is a lot is about a lot more than roosevelt. It is more about what was happening in the country and the administration. The pershing memorial may be part of the ultimate design. I dont know that yet. It all remains to be seen. Other questions . Im with a local law firm here, but interested in this area. If you would mention a place where everyone can keep track of the activities of the commission and the planning for all of this, a website and things like that. Obviously, the commission does have a website and it is worldwaronecommission. Org. Does that sound right . Worldwaronecentennial. Org. It is up and running. War, we arear old using social media. There is the website itself and then we have gotten more active means of getting the word out. I appreciate the question. [inaudible] [inaudible] yes, we are raising money for Commission Activities in general. The History Channel has been very generous. As have other organizations. We have not yet begun formal fundraising for the memorial, because we do not want to because before congress has given us approval to do so. We are sensitive to the timing of that. The Design Competition, we may fund from our own resources, but certainly once the memorial is approved, we will undertake the grassroots fundraising as well as the corporation and foundation donors. Some civil Rights Groups have brought up the fact that if we have a memorial to world war i, it cannot help but entail a major role for president wilson, who as we know did desegregate the u. S. Government when we had much improvement in Race Relations from president lincoln up to president wilson. Has that come up at all . It has not come up. My own personal view without commenting on president wilson himself one way or another that he would not be particularly visible in this memorial. Again, to me, the memorial is not about the politicians who led us into the war or to the generals who led the troops into the war. Its about the troops. I dont think, other than part of i dont know what narrative text there might be at the memorial that could talk about wilson and his leaders leading us into war, but i do not anticipate him being a significant presence in the war. In the war memorial. I have a question. I am a private citizen. My question is about fund raising. Are you going to consider using things like crowd sourcing to get access to small donations from people like yourself who have ancestors who served in the war . Without picking to specific channels, absolutely. Obviously, the heavy lifting comes from major donors, but my belief is that were memorials War Memorials such as this ought to be supported by the public at large. We will welcome and solicit restaurants donations, as well as from those who have any interest in the war, and clearly those who have ancestors who fought in the war. Those will be part of our fundraising efforts. Thank you very much. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] on the next washington journal we begin a weeklong look at Lyndon Johnsons great society. Robert woodson for the center of neighbor enterprise and michael lind of the new America Foundation will join us to talk about lbjs goal of ending poverty through the Civil Rights Act and Economic Opportunity act