Hamilton Gregory

Hamilton Gregory is the author of a bestselling college textbook, Public Speaking for College & Career, which has been used by over two million students in the U.S. and Canada. A Chinese-language edition has been sold in mainland China. He also wrote an Amazon.com bestseller, McNamara’s Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War, which was highly acclaimed by leading veterans for its exposé of Project 100,000, a program that sent mentally limited men into combat in Vietnam. Anthony Zinni, a four-star general in the U.S. Marine Corps, wrote, “Hamilton Gregory has written a superb account of the debacle that was Project 100,000. This book should be read by every one of our political leaders who need to understand the effects of stupid decisions made by those who do not understand the nature of war.” Gregory got to know dozens of “McNamara’s Morons” (as they were cruelly called) while training at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1967. He was outraged that such men were inducted and sent into combat, with a predictably high rate of death and disability. He vowed that he would someday tell their story – a vow that he fulfilled by writing his book and by appearing in a YouTube video entitled “McNamara’s Folly.” Gregory served in Vietnam as a U.S. Army intelligence agent in 1968-69. Using a false name and posing as a civilian journalist, he worked on a team that recruited and trained Frenchmen and Southeast Asians for espionage missions in Cambodia. He is a life member of Vietnam Veterans of America and a life member of Disabled American Veterans. He lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he taught English and public speaking at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College for 33 years. In 1988, he was named Instructor of the Year at the college.