What was Project 100 00?

Project 100,000 (also McNamara’s 100,000), also known as McNamara’s Folly, McNamara’s Morons and McNamara’s Misfits, was a controversial 1960s program by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to recruit soldiers who would previously have been below military mental or medical standards.

Why was Project 100000 formed?

August 23, 1966. In order to meet a growing need for military personnel in Vietnam, Secretary of Defense McNamara announces the start of Project 100,000. It is a social program that allows the military to accept men who do not meet the standards on the Armed Forces Qualification Test or who have physical limitations.

What is the Armed Forces Qualification Test?

The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) covers four sections from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB): Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Arithmetic Reasoning, and Mathematics Knowledge. These four sections and your scores on them make up the Military Entrance Score, also known as the AFQT.

How did McNamara use low-IQ troops in the Vietnam War?

According to Hamilton Gregory, author of McNamara’s Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War: McNamara was a lover of technology… McNamara believed he could win the war in Vietnam through the use of advanced technology and computerized analysis… And he believed he could raise the intelligence of men through the use of video tapes.

Why did McNamara want to stay at the Pentagon?

When LBJ finally eases his defense secretary out (to become president of the World Bank), McNamara is not conscience-stricken about his management of the war; in fact, he wistfully wants to remain at the Pentagon — despite the enormous stress his job has brought to his wife and family, which “Path to War” graphically illustrates.

How well does the HBO film ‘Vietnam’ portray McNamara?

The HBO film premiered on May 18, but it continues to play in heavy rotation — in fact, it can be seen twice on Thursday, at 4 p.m. and midnight EST — which is why the untold story of McNamara’s Vietnam years bears closer review. In the film, Alec Baldwin admirably depicts McNamara’s buttoned-up style and automaton-like self-assurance.

What is ‘McNamara’s Folly’?

With ‘mental standards’ now lower, the US now had men to fight in the war. This decision was made by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Lyndon B. Johnson. This came to be known as ‘McNamara’s Folly’—the title of a book on the subject ( Hamilton, 2015 ).