Chapter 13 - The Destruction of Culture - Exploring the Text: In paragraph 38, Hedges claims that the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is important because it was funded and organized “by those who survived,” rather than by the government. Visit the National Park Service Web site for more information about the memorial. Do you agree that it offers our nation an “opportunity for redemption”? Please explain. Do you agree with Hedges’s claim that “the state has prodded us back towards the triumphalism that led us into Vietnam”? Why or why not?