McNamara's Folly, by Hamilton Gregory
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McNamara's Folly, 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, by Hamilton Gregory- Amazon Sales Rank: #79157 in Books
- Published on: 2015-05-21
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x .56" w x 5.98" l, .79 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 262 pages
Review "Hamilton Gregory has written a superb account of the debacle that was Project 100,000. This book should be read by every one of our political leaders who need to understand the effects of stupid decisions made by those who do not understand the nature of war." --Anthony C. Zinni, Four-Star General, U.S. Marine Corps (retired)"This book is important. I remember the men of the Special Platoons as they struggled to complete Basic Training. Each deserved a simple life doing something besides soldiering or being in combat. At least their story is being told. Forrest Gump was real. There were thousands of them."----Jan Scruggs, President Emeritus, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (the vet who led the crusade to build the Vietnam Wall in Washington)"Gregory's stories of the suffering of these [unfit] men brought tears to my eyes. They were not supposed to be destined for a combat role in Vietnam, but guess what? They went to Vietnam and many fought and died there."--David Willson, Vietnam Veterans of America, "Books in Review II"". . . a superbly written, researched, and documented accounting of one of the most ill-conceived concepts visited upon the United States Armed Forces and its citizens by its politicians. Had I the power to do so, I would require every current politician and every potential politician to read Gregory's book in the hope that never again would our civilian leaders allow something like this to occur."--Tom Davis, Colonel, US Army Special Forces (retired) and author of The Most Fun I Ever Had With My Clothes On: A March from Private to Colonel and numerous other books"Hamilton Gregory has written an important book that highlights the need to maintain the highest quality in an armed force. McNamara's Folly also highlights the need for a relationship of mutual respect between soldiers and their civilian leaders as well as the need for society to value the service of those who fought in its name."--H.R. McMaster, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army, author of Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam "McNamara's Folly is one of the most thorough explorations of these shameful and largely unknown dirty secrets of U.S. war involvement in Vietnam. As one who saw the carnage up close and personal, I can affirm the accuracy of this history. It is a must read for any American."--Lawrence William, MD, Army physician in Vietnam (1968-69), author of The Broken Man"Just when we thought we had heard it all about the war in Vietnam, along comes a new book that shines a spotlight on a little known but tragic aspect of the war. McNamara's Folly is informative, thoroughly researched, well-written and readable...Highly recommended!"--John Ketwig, author of ...and a hard rain fell: A G.I.'s True Story of the War in Vietnam"Through riveting memoir, interviews and research Hamilton Gregory revisits McNamara's moron corps --the cynical and heinous Project 100,000 that sent low-IQ troops to Vietnam as cannon fodder...It should be mandatory reading, not just for its historical relevance, but because recruitment of the unfit is being repeated today."--Myra MacPherson, author of the Vietnam classic Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation
From the Inside Flap "Hamilton Gregory's book describes in incredible detail the horror that befell those men caught up in Secretary McNamara's desire to find the troops needed to fight the Vietnam War without eliminating draft deferments or calling up the National Guard and Reserves."--John Rowan, President & CEO, Vietnam Veterans of America"An important story, well told...an important contribution to the history of America's War in Vietnam." -- Andrew Bacevich, Colonel, U.S. Army (retired), Vietnam veteran, Professor (emeritus), Boston University "Great book...I hope it will have a big impact on getting the men in 'McNamara's 100,000' their proper military discharges and VA benefits."--Daniel E. Evans, Jr., D.V.M, author, Doc: Platoon Medic, former combat medic in Vietnam with 39th Infantry (1968-69) "This book represents information that Gregory gathered over more than 45 years, documenting his story with extraordinary thoroughness...The book makes a completely convincing case that U.S. draft policy should be remembered as one of the major moral outrages of the Vietnam war...I hope the book gets the attention it deserves."--Arnold R. Isaacs, Vietnam War correspondent, Baltimore Sun, and author, Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy "Having worked as a drill instructor in the Recruit Training Regiment at San Diego and being Chief Clerk of the Drill Instructor School at Parris Island, I had first-hand experiences with Marine recruits that were exactly as described in this book. Gregory's report is accurate and offers an insight that is rarely portrayed about the Vietnam War. Thanks to Gregory for bringing this information forward so that the unknowing public can grasp the atrocity that occurred during that time. It is truly amazing what our government is capable of doing and then cloaking their actions as being benevolent."--Gregg Stoner, SSgt, U.S. Marine Corps, drill instructor (1969-1972), author of The Yellow Footprints to Hell and Back; Ooorah; Echoes from the Halls, and Hardcore Iron Mike
About the Author Hamilton Gregory is a former Associated Press writer and the author of a best-selling college textbook, Public Speaking for College & Career. A Vietnam veteran, he has been a longtime advocate for the needs of veterans with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities.
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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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