Racism has existed since the beginning of time. People have fought hundreds of wars in the name of racial superiority. Racial differences come between almost all people at some point, be it in war or in every day life. Robert Abzug's Inside the Vicious Heart and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War exemplify the racial differences that occurred as a result of the Holocaust and the Vietnam War. These events were based on racial discrimination and events that led to a new racial hatred.
The Holocaust was spurred by the Nazi hatred for all those who they believed to be inferior to them. Many races were victims of the Holocaust: Jews, Polish, Hungarians, Czechoslovakians, Ukrainians, Russians, French, Gypsies, and even some Germans.
[...] It was a pretty gory mess.'”[6] Americans were sympathetic toward the survivors at the camps. Neither the American people nor the American soldiers had ever been witnesses to such a travesty. In the 1940s, war was in full swing. The Nazi camps promoted a continued hatred for those we fought with overseas. After the camps were revealed, there was no doubt about why we were fighting in World War II. Caputo's A Rumor of War reveals another type of racism that can develop as a result of war. [...]
[...] In A Rumor of War Caputo gives a firsthand account of his struggle with hatred toward the enemy. The hatred was not merely for the Viet Cong, but for any Vietnamese that aided the VC in fighting the Americans. At one point Caputo's company is on patrol when the VC opens fire on them. The platoons return fire, but the VC vanishes. The marines are still wildly shooting and attacking nothing to the point that they destroy the entire village. [...]
[...] At one camp, a burial ceremony was held for the victims a full out ceremony, with chaplains, officers, and civilians morning the dead. Taps was played and the chaplains spoke for half an hour. Americans had respect for the dead those innocent people who died for nothing.[4] If nothing else, Americans had a hard time dealing with the German guards who remained at the camps. American soldiers stood by as inmates viciously murdered their captors. Abzug explains that in all, almost eighty ex- guards were killed at Buchenwald after its liberation. [...]
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