[4] On January 21, 1986, New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean signed legislation appropriating $25,000 to administer a statewide competition for the design of a Vietnam veterans' memorial.

In May 1991, three statues to be included in the memorial were unveiled in Trenton; they were sculpted by Thomas Jay Warren.

The ten stairways and two ramps leading up to them intersect, as the designer did not want the pathways for the handicapped separate.

[citation needed] The Vietnam Era Museum and Educational Center is adjacent to the memorial.

She said that, without an educational center explaining the war and turmoil in the country at that time, a memorial could be meaningless to passerby.

[citation needed] The Vietnam Era Museum and Educational Center was dedicated in September 1998.

[8] The 5,000-square-foot (460 m2) facility had a construction budget of $3.5 million; it was intended to provide a balanced view of the controversial war.