Critics have teamed with the US chapter of the International Council on Monuments and Sites to object to plans for the museum. Their message is to be conveyed to at least 15 other counterparts in other countries.
Mark McHenry, the deputy parks director in Kansas City, has said the money from foreign countries is needed for the restoration project. Liberty Memorial was closed in 1994 due to structural problems. In 1998, Kansas City voters approved a temporary half-cent sales tax that garnered more than $45 million for the restoration of the memorial and museum and a maintenance budget.
The memorial is the country's only large-scale project that honors the veterans of World War I. The musuem holds about 400,000 wartime artifacts. When it was dedicated in 1921, military leaders from Britain, France, Italy and Belgium attended the ceremony.
Other objections to the restoration project have come in the form of questioning the design itself. Critics do not like the new approach from the south that includes a descending ramp, situated next to a relecting pool and leading to the exhibit areas below the monument. Those in opposition say the design would take away from the memorial's overall appearance.
Parks department officials, however, say that the existing asphalt drive and limestone steps that would be removed were added after the memorial's initial design and construction. In a statement, parks officials said, "Is a patch of asphalt that was not even part of the original design of the monument worth saving at the expense of the development of a world-class museum that will aim to create a better understanding of our world's history?''
Supporting the restoration as planned is the Military Order of World Wars, which has 17,000 members. The local chapter was founded in 1931. Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, from Missouri and Kansas, respectively, were among its members.
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