  We study the initial-boundary value problem for a nonlinear wave equation
given by u_{tt}-u_{xx}+\int_{0}^{t}k(t-s)u_{xx}(s)ds+ u_{t}^{q-2}u_{t}=f(x,t,u)
, 0 < x < 1, 0 < t < T, u_{x}(0,t)=u(0,t), u_{x}(1,t)+\eta u(1,t)=g(t),
u(x,0)=\^u_{0}(x), u_{t}(x,0)={\^u}_{1}(x), where \eta \geq 0, q\geq 2 are
given constants {\^u}_{0}, {\^u}_{1}, g, k, f are given functions. In part I
under a certain local Lipschitzian condition on f, a global existence and
uniqueness theorem is proved. The proof is based on the paper [10] associated
to a contraction mapping theorem and standard arguments of density. In Part} 2,
under more restrictive conditions it is proved that the solution u(t) and its
derivative u_{x}(t) decay exponentially to 0 as t tends to infinity.
