From WeaponMan: “Then there was Vietnam, in which Mac gave us MacNamara’s 100,000 (which was more like 200,000, low-fuctioning recruits and draftees, or, to be blunt, retards).”
About seven paragraphs below the Mustang interior photo.
http://weaponsman.com/?p=15030#comments
I normally enjoy this blog, but this is beyond the pale. I thought these smears and sneers were long in the past.
Reminds of me of the photo meme depicting Army standards during peacetime as Captain America and wartime standards and Betelgeuse.
I find his criticism of McNamara valid.
i’m with him on McNamara too. A micro-managing narcissist and incompetent armchair general.
Documentary: Fog of War
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317910/?ref_=nm_knf_i1
The sad thing is this was true. It was called “Project 100,000” and it was McNamara’s brainchild to recruit low quality personnel to meet numbers in Vietnam. More evidence that McNamara was one of the worst defense secretaries in American History.
Vietnam draftees were hardly “retards.” My dad sat out after 2 years in college and got drafted.
The McNamara jabs are totally justified. My dad often blames him for the awful roll-out of the M16, as he was there for the whole M-14 to M-16 transition and the jamming of the M-16s due to the ammunition and lack of cleaning kits. To this day, my dad still hates that rifle. He looks at my Colt and say, “son…that rifle would get men killed.”
-brickboy240
The blog states 200,000 “retards” were sent to Viet Nam. Not at all the same thing as merely lowering admission standards. Those serving in-country were pretty much a cross section of society sans the elite “fortunate sons,” especially when college deferments were used up or folks dropped out. Check out the average education level of the “Greatest Generation” compared to Viet soldiers. Was WW2 won by even more retarded retards? Ask yourself how a group diluted by 200,000 extra retards, could, on average, become more successful than non-serving members of their generation.
No one on this site is saying that they were. My dad was also in Vietnam (volunteer) and father in law (drafted). Nearly 2 million men were drafted between 1965-73. Over 95% of the soldiers drafted met pre 1965 military standards. It is a fact however that McNamara did implement a program to draft less qualified personnel (Project 100,000) for the war. It is sickening to learn about McNamara’s complete disregard of the soldiers lives who he should have served.
It is sad that the original blogger didn’t research the topic better before writing his blog.
They might have been “less qualified” but they do not deserve to be referred to as “retards” by anyone. Many of them probably took a bullet, lost a leg or are still classified MIA.
It is very disrespectful if you ask me.
-brickboy240
No one on this site is saying that, but Gunblog is: “…Vietnam, in which…200,000…retards.” I don’t even necessarily object to a lowering of admission standards if needed to build strength quickly. Armies have always done that in dire need. It’s the insult of those who served that most makes me see red. So what if some had less education or a lower IQ. They served honorably and competently
Even if some of them met the qualification for “mentally impaired” it would still be disrespectful. But I think the blogger was attempting to be derisive of MacNamera more than those who were part of Project 100,000. It was at best, very poorly expressed.
I’m not sure what would be worse, being over there and not being able to understand what was happening all around you, or being somebody who had to depend upon a person like that. Vietnam was an “politicians” war mismanaged at the highest level but true retards like LBJ and Mac. As usually, it was the soldier who paid the price for the incompetent leadership.
The saddest part is despite being hamstrung by our own government, those who were doing the fighting destroyed the enemy at Tet. We were on the verge of victory and the North had just suffered unsustainable losses. And then that dickhead Cronkite went on the news and declared Tet to be some kind of NVA victory and the war was lost.
With the possible exception of the Bonus Army, I don’t think we’ve treated any class of veterans so poorly.
Yeah, I wouldn’t have gotten irate if he had just stuck with bashing Macnamara’s policies. But calling 200,000 troops retards, I can’t abide.
At the Seattle Airport I was called vile names and spit at after returning. But the Korean vets mostly got no welcome back either. Apathy is an insult too. At least I had a businessman buy me a welcome home drink.
LBJ and McNamara were truly horrible human beings. I mean…did ANYBODY know what we were really doing in SE Asia?
We obviously learned nothing from this nation-building project when Bush and Co. were gearing us up for Iraq.
Obama and McCain tried to steer us towards Syria and some will soon start calling for us to go to the Ukraine.
This shit never ends…we learn nothing from history…do we?
-brickboy240
Not the most honest man in news :rolleyes: how some dumbass ever thought you could use the works honest and national news anchor in the same sentence it ridiculous. I sadly was told how Walter Cronkite was the greatest human being on the planet in one of my high school classes, imagine my surprise when I actually learned about him…
Notice that we were also NOT told about the Bonus Army incident in our history classes in public schools in the 70s and 80s, either. How convenient!
When some within the new liberty movement ask, “do you really think our own troops would shoot at us?” I refer them to Kent State and the Bonus Army incidents.
-brickboy240
Along those lines many details about the lead up to Kent State were purposefully omitted. Not that anyone who was shot deserved it, indeed most were bystanders who had nothing to do with the protest, but the protests were hardly peaceful and buildings were burned. There were also concerns following instances like the armed takeover and hostage situation at Cornell University the year before.
We never heard about that one in our history class either.
http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/6179
Most every thing we learned in school is b.s. cept for math and chemistry and I forgot that already
I had some buds KIA in Viet Nam and they were not lacking in any way. There are dodos in every group of people or occupation.
The retards were the politicians and bureaucrats, and the protesters who made sport of troops they knew would not strike back. Not the troops who served.
Serving your country in combat makes all men equal.