11. Unsurprisingly, “The Moron Corps” Suffered Heavy Casualties During the Vietnam War
It goes without saying that the mentally and physically unfit young men recruited by Project 100,000 were not taught the valuable skills the program claimed they would be taught. The Pentagon simply saw the scheme as a solution to its manpower shortage, not as a social service. Once they signed on the dotted line, “the Moron Corps”, as the Project 100,000 recruits were derisively called by other soldiers, were rushed through training, then bundled off to Vietnam in disproportionate numbers.
Once in Vietnam, they were sent into combat in disproportionate numbers. In combat, the mental and physical limitations that had caused them to be rejected by the draft in the first place ensured that they were wounded and killed in disproportionate numbers. The toll fell particularly heavily on unfit black youths: 41 percent of Project 100,000’s recruits were black, compared to 12 percent in the US military as a whole.