this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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McNamara's folly has entered the chat. In October 1966 the pentagon lowered the IQ requirement for enlistment. This was done to increase the ranks by 100,000 per year. This led to lots of dumb, and mentally ill soldiers being enlisted. A good fictional media portrayal would be Forrest Gump and his beloved pal Bubba being shipped to where the war actually was. Inductees of the project died at three times the rate of other Americans serving in Vietnam. So yeah, some of the troops were dumb enough to leave a trail of cigarette butts behind them compromising their location.
Another good film on this is Full Metal Jacket
We see it with Private Pyle clearly being unfit for service intellectually and physically. He snaps and kills his drill sargent and himself.
You also see it throughout the war half of the movie such as with the helicopter gunner gleefully massacring civilians indiscriminately.
Did you mean ‘sergeant’, by any chance?
If I was of a cynical mindset (and I assure you I am), that almost sounds like a deliberate eugenics plan.
My brother in cynicism from another mother. 🤣
I only just now noticed your username :) [fistbump]
It was more that the administration needed bodies to throw at the war, and the administration didn't want to make the unpopular decision to force college kids to take leave from school for a draft. They weren't trying to kill these guys on purpose. It was more like throwing shit against the wall and praying that something stuck.
I can totally see it being more stupidity than malice, but just the way that was put together in that comment had me looking askance.
You're taking the reverse of my meaning.
They were so poorly trained they only had 3 attacks.
They're Americans; none of that took any training.