American Legion Mall comprises two city blocks and is the largest part of the five-city-block plaza, with the actual mall at the north end of this section. The plaza's design reflects the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and the City Beautiful Movement, a popular design trend in the 1920s. The American Legion was the catalyst for the Indiana War Memorial Plaza, and the history of the plaza is closely tied to the history of the American Legion. The search for the national headquarters location led to the creation of this plaza as one of the greatest national tributes to veterans. The same tools that General John Pershing used in laying the original Indiana War Memorial cornerstone in 1927 were used again in a similar ceremony on May 6, 1949, for the enlarged American Legion Headquarters. A time capsule placed inside contains a current edition of the Indianapolis Star, other city newspapers, facsimiles of several historic documents, and a history of the War Memorial. Throughout the 1990s, three monuments were added to the mall to honor Indiana veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. North of the Korean War Memorial stands the most recent addition, the World War II Memorial, dedicated in 1999. Patterned after the Vietnam and Korean War memorials but larger in stature to distinguish the significance of World War II, it includes an entablature listing the order of campaigns and operations and a computer database of all Hoosiers who gave their lives. During World War II, one-half million Americans were killed and another half-million were wounded.