McNamara's 100,000-Penned Moron Corps:
(Includes Heartfelt Brave Eagle Coin Story)
I only recently read about this slang term supposedly used by GIs in Vietnam
referring to what is shamefully known as McNamara’s 100,000. It was
more like 354,000.
The plan was supposedly hatched by Secretary of Defense
McNamara to make President Johnson look good by providing more
troops for Vietnam without calling up the Reserves and National Guard.
Most historians or anybody who chooses to write about this shameful
and immoral idea, view McNamara’s 100,000 as a total failure. However,
my experience leads me to a different; and, in a way, somewhat of a theological
truth—sometimes a perceived moral failure turns out, in the big picture,
to be the best decision.
McNamara’s 100,000 experiment began with
the worst of motives—getting more cannon fodder for Vietnam and yet
ending up empowering a group of America’s underclass. I surely saw many
of them who soldiered with great valor. And, not one time do I ever remember
hearing another soldier refer to them as the Moron Corps. I think
this is some journalist’s histrionics.
Paradoxically, I think historian/writers like to put various motives on scenarios,
giving them logic when there is no logic. Maybe LBJ didn’t want to
call up more Reserves and National Guard less he incur the wrath of the
antiwar types. And, given the circumstances and what we now know about
McNamara, this devious plan of going into America’s ghettos and rural
south for more cannon fodder sounds like something he would do.
In my experience, what this immoral idea did was give some forgotten
Americans a chance at participating in a slice of history, like it or not.
And, they truly did participate as most of them became combat infantrymen.
Was Vietnam better than no chance for those who, had not the standards
been lowered, would never have been Nam bound? I think so. If they died,
they may, as my good friend says, “died in vain but they lived in honor.”
And, some of them did benefit with training and did escape poverty.
I will never forget going into the wiles of Appalachia once to deliver
what we called in Vietnam, “a brave eagle.” The “brave eagle” was a little
coin which was given to a 101 st trooper for literally killing one of the enemy and
was much coveted by a combat soldier. This may sound a little gross to some
coffee shop type hanging out in Berkeley but we were at war. And, war is no day at the beach; and,
if this thought rattles someone’s sensibilities, get over
it.
I promised this trooper that when I got home and settled, I’d bring him
his “brave” eagle. I finally located his place way back in this holler as the
mountain folks called it. He was sitting on the porch in his wheelchair when
I drove up—no legs. I wanted to cry The tears were welling up in my eyes.
He greeted me with a paratrooper’s "Hoo Ahhhhhhhhh" and called me the
term that was one of endearment, “preacher.” We talked; his Mom and Dad
and a whole gaggle of relatives and locals kept walking by the porch.
I gave
him his brave eagle and he said, “Preacher, I’m glad I went to Vietnam. I’m
not a whole man, but I’ve got me a government pension and I can give my
folks more than I ever could if I hadn’t gone.” I wanted to cry and tell him
that I didn’t care what the government gave him, they could never repay him
for what he’d lost. I didn’t.
He named over about a half dozen guys that he was with when his whole
squad was hit and most killed. He pulled out a pack of letters that he’d gotten
from families, a few from some of his buddies. It was meaningful.
Yes, good coming from a bad, even immoral idea—no doubt!
|
Now Available: Newly revised paperback General Lee:Father of the Airborne.