Abstract
Excerpted From: Eleanor T. Morales, Reparations for Project One Hundred Thousand, 74 Duke Law Journal 1139 (February, 2025) (354 Footnotes) (Full Document)
"A nation that has asked of [Vietnam veterans] enormous sacrifices in war ought to be able to make considerable sacrifices for them in peace. The difference between what is deserved and what has been delivered is even more piquant if one considers what was promised. And nowhere were the promises more glowing and the reality more bleak than for the men who were inducted into the army under a special program of compensatory education called Project 100,000."
Maurice Williams grew up in poverty on a farm in rural eastern North Carolina. At the age of eighteen, Maurice scored a fifteen on the Armed Forces Qualification Test ("AFQT"), the military entrance exam. Though the military would have deemed that score as too low to enter the military just a few years prior, he was drafted into the U.S. Army ("Army"). It was 1969--the height of the Vietnam War. The deadly and increasingly unpopular war was not only causing extreme financial strain on the United States, but it was also exposing "glaring inequities in the military conscription system that further embittered the struggle over class and race discrimination that increasingly engulfed the nation." Despite over half-a-million men deploying to Vietnam, the military needed more men to serve in the armed forces and fight to continue the expanding war effort.
Maurice was unknowingly part of a Vietnam War-era program called "Project One Hundred Thousand." This U.S. Department of Defense program altered the military aptitude and medical entrance standards--admitting service members who were previously ineligible to serve. The program implemented quotas for each military branch, requiring them to accept a certain number of Project One Hundred Thousand men, called "New Standards Men." The program was named after its primary goal--to accept one hundred thousand previously ineligible men into the armed forces each fiscal year.
Maurice was deployed to the battlefields of Vietnam. Out on a mission, shrapnel from an enemy rocket struck him in the arm. Fortunately, Maurice recovered and survived, but he still had permanent scars from the injury. Unbeknownst to Maurice, he began experiencing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder ("PTSD") after his redeployment to the United States. Maurice's untreated mental health condition manifested as minor, nonviolent misconduct, including failure to wear his uniform properly, tardiness to formation, and outbursts when interacting with a superior officer. As a result, the Army involuntarily separated Maurice for "unfitness" with an "undesirable"--now called "other than honorable"--discharge. Neither Maurice nor his military chain of command was ever told that he was admitted under Project One Hundred Thousand. Indeed, the U.S. government has still not revealed who was part of this program.
For over half a century, Maurice sought health care at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ("VA") for his service-connected injuries. Because of his other than honorable discharge, however, VA turned Maurice away every time. He suffered from houselessness, unemployment, and the invisible wounds of war, including PTSD, throughout his postservice life. Maurice was objectively worse off than if he had avoided the draft like tens of thousands of other service members.
Maurice's military service and subsequent hardships are not a one-off story. In fact, approximately 354,000 men, nearly the current population of Cleveland, Ohio, voluntarily enlisted or were drafted into the military through Project One Hundred Thousand. In 1966, during the height of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced a new DOD program that would enlist or draft men who, like Maurice, were initially ineligible to serve in the military.
The military manpower challenge in the Vietnam War was overcome, in part, because the U.S. government could make lower socioeconomic classes, who lacked political power, bear the brunt of the fighting. Project One Hundred Thousand is evidence in support of that logic. Yet, according to the DOD, the purported justification of Project One Hundred Thousand was to "salvage" the ""subterranean poor" by providing employment, discipline, and military training. Clothed in an "altruistic facade," Secretary McNamara justified this program, saying it would boost the New Standards Men's future income potential in civilian employment, teach them new skills that would easily translate to the civilian world, and increase their self-confidence and discipline. The military also promised these men access to the full swath of veterans' benefits postdischarge.
The program, however, did not deliver on its promises to Maurice, to any of these men, and, more broadly, to the American public. Instead, Project One Hundred Thousand drafted and voluntarily enlisted members from marginalized communities to serve in the place of more privileged men, who sought and received draft exemptions during the Vietnam War. As a result, "[t]he burden of the war shifted even more to society's less privileged."
Although the program was facially race neutral, Project One Hundred Thousand disproportionately impacted service members of color. Over 40 percent of the New Standards Men were Black compared to only 9.1 percent of Black service members serving in the military at the time. The service of New Standards Men meant that men who were more likely to be white were less likely to be deployed or serve in combat. By creating Project One Hundred Thousand, the U.S. government "exploited black Americans, using them as cannon fodder while cloaking their betrayal in the rhetoric of advancement." The New Standards Men, who were more likely to be Black and impoverished, were also more likely to be assigned combat roles. Thus, not surprisingly, they were more likely to be deployed to Vietnam. Maurice, a Black man assigned to an infantry unit, fit the typical New Standards Man profile. The program sent more than half of New Standards Men, including Maurice, to a combat zone. These men were more likely to be wounded or killed in Vietnam--their fatality rate was three times as high as non-New Standards Men. Project One Hundred Thousand essentially issued a one-way ticket for many young men from marginalized communities to the battlefields of Vietnam.
The history and adverse impact of Project One Hundred Thousand is documented in historical accounts and known amongst Vietnam War historians. But this history--and its disproportionate impact on service members of color--has not been discussed in the legal academy. This Article is the first to synthesize this history, unearth primary source documents through archival research, and bring that research into conversations with legal scholars because it is not well-known among legal academics, military lawyers, and, frankly, most service members.
Informed by this Author's personal experience representing New Standards Men as well as practicing military criminal law and VA benefits law, this Article also contributes to the legal discourse by revealing the harms these men endured. Specifically, this Article shines a spotlight on one long-term, overlooked, and underappreciated consequence that surviving New Standards Men still endure today--the issuance of less than honorable discharges. Approximately 180,000 New Standards Men were issued less than honorable discharges.
For most service members, like Maurice, a less than honorable discharge likely means they do not have "veteran status" under the law. Without veteran status, a former service member is barred from some, if not all, VA benefits--typically for life. Access to the incredible resources at VA can be lifesaving for a veteran. These benefits usually include free health care and mental health treatment, housing benefits, and educational opportunities. For Maurice and many other New Standards Men, their less than honorable discharge puts them in a worse position than if they had never served in the military, even if they had done so by illegally avoiding the draft.
Bringing Project One Hundred Thousand into the legal literature establishes a framework to propose a potential remedy for New Standards Men. Reparations need not be limited to monetary payment. Indeed, reparations can come in many forms; they can serve as a "program of acknowledgment, redress, and closure for a grievous injustice." The proposed legal remedy can serve as an acknowledgment of the injustice New Standards Men endured, redress in the form of a military record correction as described below, and closure to likely the most difficult yet unforgotten part of their lives.
A blueprint for a legal remedy already exists. The DOD implemented a remedy-- presumptive discharge relief it addressed its previous overt discrimination based on sexual orientation after the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ("DADT") in 2011. No congressional action is required.
After the repeal of DADT, victims of the homosexual conduct policy successfully used that legal presumption to upgrade their discharge status and correct their military records. Although the title "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" appears to focus on identity expression--what service members could disclose about their own identities--it also prohibited conduct, including same-sex marriage and consensual homosexual acts. Thus, this Article will refer to DADT as a homosexual conduct policy.
This Article proposes that Project One Hundred Thousand men with less than honorable discharges should be afforded presumptive discharge relief, like the relief provided to victims of the military's prior homosexual conduct policy. Pursuant to this remedy, the less than honorable discharges of New Standards Men are presumed to be unfair if the following two requirements are met: the service member was part of Project One Hundred Thousand and their record is devoid of aggravating circumstances.
The proposed remedy for New Standards Men differs in two important ways from the presumptive discharge relief afforded to victims of the homosexual conduct policy. First, the term "aggravating circumstances" is clearly and more broadly defined in the proposed remedy. Second, to meet the two requirements, all a New Standards Man must do is fill out a DD Form 149 with their basic biographical information, a simple statement identifying what correction they are requesting, an explanation for why this correction should be made, their signature, and the date of their signature.
This Article is the first to propose meaningful reparations for the New Standards Men still suffering from consequences of Project One Hundred Thousand. Drawing from original archival research, Part I unearths the historical context not well-known in the legal academy. Part II analyzes the short-term and long-term consequences of the program that resulted in a disproportionate impact on service members of color. Part II also highlights one of the frequently ignored consequences of the program and explains its impact on the surviving New Standards Men. Finally, Part III proposes relief that is directly tied to remedying this lifelong consequence, offering a way for the U.S. government to make reparations for the harm it inflicted on marginalized communities.
[. . .]
Project One Hundred Thousand was a DOD program that targeted impoverished communities, sent thousands to their deaths in a combat zone, and ruined the lives of more than a hundred thousand others. Many of the approximately 354,000 New Standards Men, including Maurice Williams, whose story opened this Article, are still awaiting a meaningful solution to mitigate the injustices they continue to endure because of the program. For the first time in history, this Article proposes a remedy to offer effective relief to the New Standards Men--a way for the U.S. government to make reparations for the harm it inflicted on marginalized communities.
In the poem transcribed below, a New Standards Man described the severe economic, social, and moral injury he experienced for nearly fifty years because of his other than honorable discharge and lack of "veteran status." The DOD has the ability, and now the framework, to right this grievous wrong.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Wake Forest University School of Law.
