depending on which country you went to school in your history classes may have been a little
bit different from those on the other side of the world studying history allows us to examine
how modern society came to be and allows us to make better decisions for the future
based on the past number five the vietnam war polarized the u.s and had a lasting impact on
political policies and the counter culture movement the us's involvement in vietnam
came with both heavy backlash and strong support and the war itself has been immortalized in books
films and documentaries however there is a dark history behind the selection of certain units
that were sent to the front lines at the start of the conflict men were signing up in droves
to fight for their country and to protect the west from the perceived threat of communism
as the years passed the u.s government began thinking of new ways to boost the number of
troops and started by lowering the score needed to be taken as a recruit the score was lowered
to just 10 points meaning that fewer recruits would be filtered out of the selection process
the new selection process meant that those who had previously not been fit for service
were now being recruited in droves what the american public didn't know was that these men
who had once been refused for military service had been refused because they had a low iq physical
or mental disabilities or were unable to speak english defense secretary robert mcnamara was the
mastermind behind this plan and called it project 100 000. mcnamara opted to call these recruits the
new standards men and believed that through structured training delivered on videotapes
that he could take below average soldiers and make them into above average soldiers behind the scenes
this project also acted as an experiment as to whether army training could lift these men out of
poverty and raise their living standards following the war in total between 320 000 and 354 000 new
standards men were enlisted and sent to the us army navy marines or air force a disproportionate
amount of these men lost their lives compared to the quote-unquote normal soldiers in other
regiments and there was no evidence to suggest that the new standards men were any better off
than before they had joined the armed forces the project did not give mcnamara the desired results
and instead it was found that those who did return had a harder time than normal soldiers
when these men returned home they did not adjust well to civilian life and had higher rates of
divorce and mental health issues compared to their normal counterparts many of them
struggled to either find work or hold down a job and earned significantly less than their peers
when this project was uncovered historians called it one of the darkest moments in u.s history
many of them criticized mcnamara and claimed that these men had been sent into vietnam
to boost numbers and that mcnamara had never intended to try to better the lives of these men
during their service the men were promised that they would be taught a trade
however when the war ended they were sent home and simply forgotten number four the dropping of the
atom bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki in 1945 is by far one of the scariest moments in human history
the events leading up to this moment are widely taught in schools throughout the world but what
is seldom taught are the after effects and what happened to the thousands of people whose lives
were changed in an instant it's a widely known fact that the events at nagasaki and hiroshima
dramatically changed the landscape of these cities people were forced out of their homes and had to
move to different parts of the country as these cities became uninhabitable due to radiation
hundreds upon thousands of people were injured with some people succumbing to their wounds
however for the survivors the horror was just beginning
those who had been affected by the radiation were called hibakusha which translates to bomb affected
person and on top of their life-changing injuries they faced severe discrimination from those within
their community and the rest of japan despite the country collectively mourning for those lost
those left behind were looked down upon and treated with little regard
survivors were thrown to the bottom of the pecking order and the rest of society looked down on them
many survivors recall being denied entry into public spas and bath houses as it was feared that
they would spread radiation sickness to healthy people others were told that they were not allowed
to marry into certain families because they were hibakusha some children were rejected from schools
when the administration found out that their parents were affected the discrimination didn't
end there though and many hibakushas were either rejected or not allowed to apply for jobs because
of their status people went to great lengths to hide who they were but the physical injuries
couldn't remain hidden forever one survivor wrote i wore long-sleeved shirts all year round i didn't
want people to see my scars i didn't want them to gawk at me with weird expressions on their faces
they were also denied medical care as japanese lawmakers refused to cover their conditions
without money or health care the hibakusha were forced to live on the fringes of society
desperately trying to survive even in 2021 the relatives of hibakusha still face discrimination
and are forbidden from marrying into certain families due to the stigma attached to their
heritage number three the kennedys are a household name in the u.s and across much of the world
the events of november 22nd 1963 have permanently embedded themselves into american history
and it remains one of the most controversial events in recent history behind the scandals
and the so-called kennedy curse there is a story that lurks in the shadows about a woman
that is often dubbed the forgotten kennedy rosemary kennedy was born on september 13th
1918. and was the third child of joseph and rose kennedy rosemary's birth was a difficult one
the doctor who was supposed to be helping with the delivery arrived late and as a result the kennedys
had to rely on a single nurse to help them bring their first daughter into the world there were
a few complications and rosemary was starved of oxygen causing her to be born with an impairment
the kennedys knew that this would bring great shame upon their family and did everything they
could to conceal rosemary's disability they hired tudors to work with her day and night so that she
would be at the same level as her brothers as the years passed rosemary flourished into
a young adult and with the right care became a well-adjusted adult that was until the 1940s when
she was placed in the convent by her family and it was here that her behavior changed the nuns who
cared for rosemary reported that she was an unruly young woman and that she would sneak out at night
to visit bars and party with men in the 40s this behavior was seen as unacceptable and the kennedy
family worried that rosemary's behavior would cast a shadow on their chances of political success
that's where dr walter freeman came in to save the day he told the kennedys that lobotomizing
rosemary would be the end to all of her ailments rosemary was awake and aware during the procedure
and was not once asked whether she understood or consented to what was happening to her
sadly the procedure went very wrong and left her unable to walk or talk the family quickly
realized what had happened and abandoned her in an institution for over 20 years no one visited her
and the family were forbidden from talking about her it wouldn't be until her siblings found out
the truth that they rescued her and placed her into a proper care facility number two chinese
history is rarely touched upon in classrooms in the west and it's unlikely that you will have
heard of the first emperor of china there's a creepy story behind the first emperor of china
that is kept out of classrooms and for good reason qin shi huang the leader of the qin dynasty carved
out his place in the history books and became the first but certainly not the last emperor of china
chin had consolidated power by conquering all six states within china and declaring himself the new
leader the states had been at war with each other for years and were in no position to fight back
against qin's forces chin soon settled into his role of emperor and enjoyed the power that it
gave him anyone who opposed him or who he deemed to be an adversary was removed from the picture
chin was obsessed with the idea of immortality and proclaimed to his subjects that his dynasty would
span for ten thousand generations however this obsession with immortality actually led to his
downfall and gave us one of the creepiest moments in history as he grew older he became more and
more aware that his time on earth was limited but instead of ensuring that his successor was
ready to take the throne once he had passed he put all of his energy into finding the elixir of life
he summoned doctors and alchemists to his home and tasked them with finding the potion that
would allow him to live forever little did chin know that the elixir created by the alchemists
would be the very thing that would bring about his early demise these potions contained mercury
a substance that is fatal when ingested and ultimately led to his death at the age of 49.
chin didn't stop at finding the elixir of immortality though he also had a backup plan
should the elixir fail he ordered the creation of the infamous terracotta army made up of over
8 000 life-sized statues that were placed in his mausoleum to guard him in the afterlife
chin's hunt for immortality sadly led him down the path to an early grave and left us with one
of the strangest stories in history number one towards the end of world war ii the allied forces
came together and created the manhattan project which aimed to create the atom bomb as we know
this project was successful and played its part in bringing about the end of the war
what most people don't know is that the team of scientists based at los alamos created not two
but three plutonium cores and that the third ended in a disaster that was covered up for decades
the first two cores were used in hiroshima and nagasaki and the third one was waiting
on the sidelines in the event that japan did not surrender the japanese did surrender however and
the third core was kept at los alamos for further testing and picked up the nickname
the demon core and for good reason despite the scientists working at los alamos being some of
the most distinguished in their fields they still had little regard for health and safety
one of the researchers louis slotin decided to play around with the demon core and pushed
the limits of scientific discovery a little bit further the core was housed on a table in one of
the laboratories and a beryllium cover was placed on top of the plutonium core slotten placed the
head of a screwdriver in between the cover and the core so that it would just fall short of
reaching supercriticality meaning that research could be conducted slogan's colleagues at los
alamos expressed their concerns stating that what he was doing was incredibly unsafe and was putting
the lives of everyone at risk one scientist would later describe him as tickling the dragon's tail
in may of 1946 the flathead screwdriver that kept the core from reaching supercriticality finally
slipped slotin stood directly in front of the core and absorbed most of the neutron radiation emitted
he later recalled quote i saw a flash of blue light and a wave of heat across my skin before i
was able to break the chain reaction the core had only reached supercriticality for a few seconds
but the damage it had caused was irreversible slotin had been exposed to 1 000 rad of radiation
and passed away nine days later from acute radiation sickness
other scientists in the room also suffered from adverse health effects however they were spared
most of the damage as slotin had absorbed most of the radiation this event was kept quiet and
the american government did their best to conceal what really happened in los alamos in may of 1946.
thank you guys so much for watching if you like this video be sure to hit that
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with all of our future uploads but i've been ty knotts and i'll catch you guys in the next video