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douglas9

(4,473 posts)
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:32 AM May 2022

Inside the Pentagon's shameful effort to draft mentally disabled men to fight in Vietnam

In 1967, a young man named Johnny Gupton was drafted into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Gupton didn’t know how to read or write; he didn’t even know what state he was from. He had never heard of Vietnam. When a fellow soldier questioned a noncommissioned officer (NCO) about how someone with such an obvious mental disability could join the Army, the NCO responded, “Ehh, he’s one of McNamara’s Morons.”

This is what soldiers like Gupton were known as throughout the Armed Forces during the Vietnam War era. In 1967, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara lowered military recruiting standards as part of a program called Project 100,000. Its goal, as the name suggests, was to recruit 100,000 men each year who were otherwise mentally, physically or psychologically underqualified for service. These men all had IQs below 91, and nearly half had IQs below 71. From the Project’s launch in 1966, through its termination in 1971, it allowed 354,000 previously ineligible men into the military. Of these, 5,478 died in combat and 20,270 were wounded.

These men were aggressively recruited and pushed through training without having met even the bare minimum of standards set for them. They were sent into combat in large numbers and many died. They were promised greater benefits and opportunities as an incentive to join the military, but those who returned alive came home to broken promises and were abandoned by the government. It’s a largely forgotten and shameful chapter in American history.

https://taskandpurpose.com/history/project-100000-vietnam/

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Inside the Pentagon's shameful effort to draft mentally disabled men to fight in Vietnam (Original Post) douglas9 May 2022 OP
I never saw anyone like that in the Army or Nam. pwb May 2022 #1
I need to ask my dad gay texan May 2022 #3
PROJECT 100,000 (1966-1971) douglas9 May 2022 #4
I am not opening that shit. pwb May 2022 #5
The truth is not insulting veterans its telling what the government did. marie999 May 2022 #9
My dad is one of them. gay texan May 2022 #10
Surprised the article left out... Grins May 2022 #2
I listened to several of his interviews DashOneBravo May 2022 #11
Viet Nam low IQ troops drafted keithbvadu2 May 2022 #6
Tom DeLay military service keithbvadu2 May 2022 #7
All veterans are 'suckers and losers' acc to Trump. keithbvadu2 May 2022 #8

pwb

(12,197 posts)
1. I never saw anyone like that in the Army or Nam.
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:39 AM
May 2022

Or ever heard any of this writing mentioned. 75% of Nam fighters enlisted. This article is crap.

gay texan

(2,833 posts)
3. I need to ask my dad
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:51 AM
May 2022

It seems like hes mentioned something about this. He was in the thick of it from 67-68 and fought in the Tet Offensive.

I know he REALLY fucking hated MacNamara.

 

marie999

(3,334 posts)
9. The truth is not insulting veterans its telling what the government did.
Tue May 3, 2022, 02:59 PM
May 2022

It took the government until 1991 to help veterans disabled because of Agent Orange.

gay texan

(2,833 posts)
10. My dad is one of them.
Thu May 5, 2022, 09:11 AM
May 2022

I'm watching him slowly and painfully fade away before his time.

Dad came back with PTSD, a hatred of guns, and an entirely different view of United States govt.

To this day, he lays a lot of blame on McNamara, and Military Industrial Complex.

Grins

(7,863 posts)
2. Surprised the article left out...
Tue May 3, 2022, 11:50 AM
May 2022

…war correspondent Joe Galloway who HATED McNamara for what he did. Followed him later in life and never let him forget it.

Other correspondent who REALLY HATED McNamara was David Halberstram who literally followed McNamara when he went on tour pumping his book and got media coverage calling out what a shit McNamara was and what he did.

McNamara couldn’t take it and his book tour was canceled.

DashOneBravo

(2,679 posts)
11. I listened to several of his interviews
Sun May 8, 2022, 10:50 PM
May 2022

He did the same with Iraq. He was able to visit Army units and get in and get honest insight. Of course all of them knew who he was. He was a legend from the Battle of LZ X Ray, Plei Me and being the only civilian ever awarded the Bronze Star (V).

keithbvadu2

(39,905 posts)
6. Viet Nam low IQ troops drafted
Tue May 3, 2022, 01:11 PM
May 2022

Viet Nam low IQ troops drafted

McNamara desperately needed warm bodies (literally) so he lowered the entrance requirements for the military.


Even some who barely knew left from right.

McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War

Hamilton Gregory Published on Apr 29, 2016

A presentation and reading by Hamilton Gregory, author of "McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam." Because so many college students were avoiding military service during the Vietnam War, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara lowered mental standards to induct 354,000 low-IQ men. Their death toll in combat was appalling.

keithbvadu2

(39,905 posts)
7. Tom DeLay military service
Tue May 3, 2022, 01:14 PM
May 2022

Tom DeLay military service

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/1999/05/what_did_you_do_in_the_war_hammer.html

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