The government targeted disabled people from some of the poorest communities in the country, who McNamara referred to as, “the subterranean poor.”
Many of those drafted were illiterate, they had to be taught to tie their shoes, and they didn’t know things like who the president was, even as they were being sent to kill and die on his orders for an imperialist war, for reasons they could not understand.
A book called McNamera’s Folly records some stories of those recruited in the program. One thought a nickel was worth more than a dime, because it was bigger. One of them failed to attend training and was sentenced to four years of labor in prison, and the sergeant asked if anyone “wanted to join them in the stockade.” Another conscript didn’t know what the word “stockade” meant and thought it meant going home, so he said yes - he received the same sentence.
If you can believe it, this was actually sold to the public as a “progressive” program, as part of Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” The claim was that this would be a way to help the conscripts learn useful skills. in reality, a study by the DoD itself found:
Comparisons between Project 100,000 participants and their non-veteran peers showed that, in terms of employment status, educational achievement, and income, non-veterans appeared better off. Veterans were more likely to be unemployed and to have a significantly lower level of education. Income differences ranged from $5,000 [to] $7,000 in favor of non-veterans. Veterans were more likely to have been divorced.
Obviously.
I know this sounds cartoonishly evil, but please consider how the unemployment rate went down drastically within this subpopulation.
Now about my newest idea ‘tunnel-sized toddlers with claymore mines’
Maybe the real problem was that there weren’t enough civilian jobs that could make use of the valuable skills they were taught, like, “how to get shoved into the line of fire while the rest of us run away.”
Yeah this is the kind of shit you literally couldn’t put into a fictional movie because viewers would not buy that a first-world democracy would do that to their citizens. You’d need an intentionally over-the-top cartoonishly evil fictional entity like Vault-Tec to even approach a “Moron Corps” scenario in fiction…
It’s a modest proposal
You had me in the first half
Just like the good old days and the coal mines.
This is part of what Forrest Gump was about. Think Forrest and Bubba would have made it to boot in the first place?
Holy crap this is what Forrest Gump was about I never realized…
To be fair, it’s about other things, too. Like Jenny’s character’s arc had nothing to do with that part.
Well, it shows the state of the country regarding protesting the war in Vietnam, Black Panthers and such, although we don’t get to hear what he says about the war at the National Mall before he spots her running out.
The movie was like that. The book was simply horrible.
Edit: Only someone who has never read the book could downvote the above statement.
Yes, it was based on ‘McNamara’s Morons’ as people said. And to be fair to the book, it does a better job of making Forrest Gump more self aware, he does in fact grasp that he’s being exploited and underpaid and under trained, used for the most deadly jobs and mocked for it.
McNamara was truly one of the most cold-blooded sociopaths in US history.
“Just need a few more million tons of bombs bro. Then the NVA will finally realize that WE’RE the good guys bro.”
– Robert McNamara (Probably)
The Fog of War is a damn good documentary. I watched it in a college class about the Vietnam War, and that class absolutely radicalized me. There was zero reason for the US to be there.
It is indeed a great documentary. Ironically, McNamara happily agreed to be interviewed for it. I haven’t seen it in over 20 years, but I just remembered being absolutely repulsed at how completely unfeeling the dude was about everything.
Along with Kissinger and Nixon.
I understand the program and/or participants were pejoratively referred to as “McNamera’s Morons”. They had an absolutely dismal survival rate for what I imagine are super obvious reasons. Beyond fucked up and still somehow not in the top 5 of fucked up shit our government and/or military has done to our own citizens.
This is why Forrest and Bubba went to Nam, and why Lt. Dan was not super thrilled to have them in his squad.
And don’t forget Gomer Pyle.
promoted as a response to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty
US war on the poor has been consistently successful.
The MAGA crowd meets the conscription criteria and they’re ready for the jungles in Venezuela.
Isn’t this just eugenics?
No because its poor people and they aren’t considered humans to anybody in the upper class.
They were mentally challenged people.
From the poorest communities. I don’t see rich disabled people on the front lines in any timeline. Almost like your income is used to discriminate in a system designed ages ago for kings and Queens but fuck me for saying we just put a new coat of paint on the old systems.
"Each soldier was then issued an AR-15 rifle, three clips of NATO 7.62 mm rounds… "
That’s one of my favorite Onion articles and I never noticed this detail.
There are AR-15s that use 7.62, jokingly called “AR-47”. They’re not using 7.62 NATO though.
I’m sure there’s a .308 Winchester version of an AR-15 out there though, which is basically the same thing.
AR-10 is the .308
I think Poutine has been doing this since 2022 too!
I condemn these serious allegations against Poutine
And remember boys and girls, these are the actions of good Christian people, which tells you a lot about what Christianity is about. Just to be clear, this isn’t exceptionally bad behavior for Christians, this is pretty much the standard, I’d expect no less from them.
Fuck ALL religions, all religions are evil and all religions should be prohibited as it’s all just an excuse to be an asshole and yet appear pious. Fuck it all
Vietnam was about oil, do not blame religion they knew what they were doing. It’s always class warfare.
Oooohh, you found an exception!
I’m sure there are more, but way to go with completely missing the point
You are mistaken. I see your point, I just disagree with it.
Well let me put it differently then
Yeah, I’m sure quite a few wars weren’t about religion directly. I’m also quite sure that Gods and religion has been used in almost all wars to convince people they are the righteous, to convince them to commit horrible atrocities
Even the Nazis had “god ist mitt uns” (pardon my horrible German) in their belt buckles.
Religion is a tool and was one of the first forms of government, a proto-government. States are also a tool, do the same shit (resource control) and now that god is capital. Many modern religious folks do more mutual aid in their community than the average terminally online leftist and I don’t blanket blame others for seeking meaning when lives are complicated and messy. People need social safety nets and now churches are fallbacks when states fail in different areas. Be kind to individuals and ruthless to systems. States are just continuing where the schism with religion left off. Religious institutions managed surplus extraction, states took over that function (often incorporating religious legitimation), and now capital operates as the organising logic with its own quasi-sacred justifications. New Atheist attitudes often miss the forest for the trees and function as a reactionary sentiment not grounded in materialism. It treats religion as a causal prime mover rather than as an institution shaped by and serving material interests. I have book reccomendations if you are interested in this. Note, Christianity is really interesting case sudy, but that is a whole seperate conversation.
Lmao. The article says nothing about religion. Do do you just like proselytizing? You should consider joining a church if you have that level of fanaticism
Maybe he’s referring to the fact that McNamara, the architect of this and all-around terrible person, was an Elder in his Presbyterian church during the time he was also conceiving and running this program. IDK, that’s the first direct connection I could find. That, and a lot of this was under Kennedy, who was famously and publicly and proudly the first Catholic president. So I agree it’s not a great look for Kennedy in terms of his Catholicism being a major part of his identity, to have allowed his SecDef to run this program on “the least among us” if you will.
There was Cleveland, he was from Detroit…
Great share, thanks!
I once worked with a guy named Toledo who was from Flint, MI
His parents were just massive fans of Klinger from MASH.
Freedumbs not free, amirite ‘muricans?
This country never ceases to amaze me with how shitty they can be and sweep it under the rug.
Guess Forrest Gump and Benjamin Buford Blue could potentially be examples of the program even if it wasn’t part of the film.
I encourage you all to read “the plutonium files” if you’d like to read about even more fucked up shit the US govt has done.
I knew about MK ULTRA from that time but hadn’t heard about this one. I know about so much fucked up shit the US has done, but it seems like there’s always more out there.
I guess that’s why RFK wants that autism list
