McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War, by Hamilton Gregory
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McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War, by Hamilton Gregory
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In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara were desperate to find additional troops for the Vietnam War, but they feared that they would alienate middle-class voters if they drafted college boys or sent Reservists and National Guardsmen to Vietnam. So, on October 1, 1966, McNamara lowered mental standards and inducted thousands of low-IQ men. Altogether, 354,000 of these men were taken into the Armed Forces and a large number of them were sent into combat. Many military men, including William Westmoreland, the commanding general in Vietnam, viewed McNamara’s program as a disaster. Because many of the substandard men were incompetent in combat, they endangered not only themselves but their comrades as well. Their death toll was appallingly high. In addition to low-IQ men, tens of thousands of other substandard troops were inducted, including criminals, misfits, and men with disabilities. This book tells the story of the men caught up in McNamara’s folly.
McNamara's Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War, by Hamilton Gregory- Amazon Sales Rank: #570152 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-06-22
- Released on: 2015-06-22
- Format: Kindle eBook
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful. A classic in the literature of how a society makes war By Frank J. Edwards Many of us--especially Vietnam veterans like myself--know well the basic facts: that an escalation of troop levels began in the mid-1960's and peaked at about 550,000 by 1968; that all total 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam during the war years; and that 58,000 American's died there, mostly in combat situations. But how many know that approximately 10% of those casualties were suffered by low IQ men brought into the service under a plan sponsored by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamera that drastically lowered the recruitment standards in order to fill the ranks, while ostensibly serving to give these low functioning men a chance to better themselves? The program was known as "McNamara's 100,000" for the number of substandard men to be recruited each year--commonly referred to as "McNamara's Morons." While the program did not necessary intend to send those men--many of whom were illiterate--into combat, they often ended up on the front lines, dying at a rate three time higher than their cohorts of normal intelligence.Haminton Gregory, a Vietnam veteran, journalist and college professor, tells the story with a compelling blend of objectivity and restrained moral force. Gregory went through Army boot camp at Fort Benning in 1967 where, as a college graduate, he was assigned to "look out for" another recruit who happened to be one of "McNamara's 100,000." Gregory describes his astonishment at discovering that this young man could not read, write, tie his shoes and did not understand that the U.S. was at war. Such men got through training, Gergory describes, thanks to leaders under pressure to keep the pipeline full who were willing to look the other way. Frustrated officers who tried to resist and send low-IQ recruits home were often rebuffed by the chain of command.Though the haunting story of this program is full of fascinating anecdotes and statistics, Gregorgy grounds it in the larger social context of conscription during the Vietnam era. The pipeline needed to be pumped full of less-than-combat-capable individuals because so many of the most intelligent young men were managing to avoid this increasingly unpopular war. Sons of the upper-middle class and upper class had no trouble getting student deferrements, and other means of avoidance. All it took to get a medical "pass" was a trip to the right doctor. If you had the wherewithal you could flee to Canada or Sweden, far from the killing fields of Indochina. The argument can even be made that the need to reach lower and lower into the barrel of potential recruits contributed to such tragedies as the My Lai Massacre, where the troops were led by a college dropout.Aside from a single instance of mild redundancy, this book has the qualities of a page turner--a well-told tale of a compelling situation. Though the subject may have special resonance for those of us who came of age during the Vietnam War era, its message still speaks just as strongly today. Our modern wars in Iraq and Afganistan are being fought by an all-volunteer military. These men and women, however, in return for making their decision to sacrifice for the nation, are being exposed to multiple, brutal combat tours, and they are paying the price. The Vietnam draftee was limited to a single tour. Both then and now, the upper socio-economic strata of our society is under-represented in combat. I believe that "McNamara's Folly" will become a classic in the literature of how a society approaches making war. For its drama and human interest this book deserves to be widely read.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful. A Brilliant Exposé of McNamara's Malfeasance By George Frazier This is a biased review, as the author of McNamara’s Folly, Hamilton Gregory, is a close friend, an old Army buddy, and fellow Vietnam vet. But this is also an informed review, as I also witnessed the chaos that ensued when Lyndon Johnson’s Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, decided to shift the burden of the draft from qualified college students to unqualified men with mental deficiencies, physical shortcomings, and criminal records. The result, as masterfully told by Gregory—former AP reporter and current author of a bestselling college textbook—is both an indictment of a monumental military mistake and an explanation of the collapse of the American military in the waning years of the Vietnam War.Gregory’s prodigious research is evident in his thorough, yet brisk, exposé of the use of low-IQ troops in the Vietnam War. The predictably tragic results include thousands of combat deaths, tens of thousands of serious war wounds, and hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted, if not destroyed. A harsh dénouement to the forced induction of those previously found unsuitable for military service was the “bad paper” (less than honorable) discharges of many of these men for “unsuitability” for military service! Men already on the margins of society were put in harm’s way, then cast aside with military discharges that left them ineligible for many jobs and most veterans’ benefits.Finally, McNamara’s Folly fully explains why the US military melted down in the final years of the Vietnam War. By drafting the mentally deficient, the physically incapable, and the morally flawed—including drug addicts and convicted criminals—the United States sent not “the best and the brightest” into combat, but the worst and the wanting. Gregory clearly and concisely reveals this tragic episode in American history.McNamara’s Folly is must reading for anyone wishing to understand the final years of the Vietnam War.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. A Triumph By E. J. Perry As an English teacher and war history buff, I am deeply moved by Mr. Gregory's book. He blends research and personal experience with such ease and provides a voice for the voiceless and powerless. More than anything, he reminds us of our shared humanity. What strikes me most is the fact that "the folly continues," as Mr. Gregory writes. The book shows that Project 100,000 still impacts us today; the disaster isn't just a past event, though the Vietnam veterans certainly got the worst of it. The following passage encapsulates the spirit of the book: "The least intelligent among us should never be viewed as expendable units of manpower, but as our fellow sojourners on this fragile earth, deserving respect and compassion -- and gratitude for the contributions they make to our families and to our society." Mr. Gregory is to be commended for writing this most important work.
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