In March 1981, a Michigan woman wrote to the organizer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund's design competition describing her concept for the memorial: she proposed a life-sized sculpture of an American soldier and a Vietnamese child, with “one hand reaching out, tentatively, no touching, toward the soldier's drooping fingers. In this little child's sweet, innocent face I see all we tried to do in Vietnam, stark contrast to what really happened, what we expended through those long hard years, these two human beings a bridge between our hopes and dreams, and cold reality. This tender little child, hoping for help, for protection, in total trust.”