Why USA Drafted Morons Into Vietnam War

The Vietnam Warthat went through from 1955 to 1975 is the most significant war chronicle and the history that affected the life of the Southeast Asia in a destructive way is called a battling tome. Americans in those days spent more time dividing themselves than uniting and anti-war protests were common. The draft system dealt disproportionately with the weakest members of society. Among the various initiatives born out of the Vietnam era, one stands out for its egregious impact on the lives of thousands of young men: Activity 100,000.

Background: The Vietnam Conflict

The war in Vietnam, called "American War" by the Vietnamese, is a complicated proxy conflict in which the communist troops backed by the Soviet Union and China try to overtake the anti-communist government of South Vietnam, that is being supported by the United States and other western countries. The conflict, in fact, was an expression of the widespread geopolitical ambitions of the Cold War. Thus, the United States saw battle for Vietnam, the key component of the fight against the expansion of communism.

Project 100,000 was the reasons behind which:

In the midst of escalating tensions and growing military involvement in Vietnam, the U.S. government faced a challenge: the ways of keeping the army ranks full in the face of strong draft refusal and the population's disapproval of the war. Enter Robert McNamara, then-Secretary of Defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, with an audacious proposal: Goal 100000

The idea behind Project 100,000 however, was easy to grasp but similarily, to the base, it was wrong conception. By foreseeing on the basis of the lowered IQ threshold and simply physical standards, McNamara expected the possibility to draw into the armed service tens of thousands of boys coming from national minority groups. These people, the "New Standard Men" or sarcastically called the "Moron Corps" by their compatriots, would undergo specialized training as well as in a hope to remedy a bad situation full on both sides: a manpower lack and the society issue of poverty.

The Grim Reality: Vitiated Promises, Shattered Lives, and Catastrophic Aftermath

The actual picture behind the project, however, is way more frightening than the project organizers imagined. Rather than empowerment and opening new options, what the program did was to give these people hopelessness and sense of disappointment instead of hope. The soldiers that got recruited via the Project 100,000 more likely than not faced the extremely high effects of PTSD, poverty, disability, homelessness & death than other civilians who did not serve.

These men were exposed to what McNamara called "adjustment training" or simply put, it was a fantasy, it offered no practical skills, no real opportunities. They were cast in playing the war despite insufficient preparation and unconsciousness of the things done by their highly intelligent counterparts. They faced the same dangers and atrocities the highly intelligent war attendants did.

Legacy and Reckoning

The USSR’s Project 100,000 symbolizes a very significant cost of the war​ and the omitted responsibilities of those in power of taking responsibility for the most fragile. Although the intention subsequently was, obviously a measure to reinforce the military strength and assist the less fortunate in our society, it became a system which was mostly hypocritical and cyclical, leading to the misrepresentation in our social setup.

For decades since, what the real impact of Project 100,000 turned out to last was still the subject for the further research. The veterans who survived are tilted with the long term effect of that war, historians and scholars look critically and essentially to what extent the ambition she was into was wrong.

In the halls of American warfare lore, Project-100-000 took place as a grim warning; a black page in the history best “not to be replicated” – a fruitless experiment that had a toll of the lives and health of thousands of deceived young men. In the long run while we empathize with the Vietnam War and feel its ongoing influence, their victims should not be in the process as they didn’t have their way in this war, which wasn’t to be their own in the first place.