"When I was young I spoke as a child...but when I became a man I put away childish things..." oh really?

When I was in elementary school I was given the short story of the American Revolution, our great George Washington, the Battle of Bunker Hill. It wasn't real history, but it was a start. It was directed at my level of understanding.

I grew a little older. I learned that Washington could be deemed a war criminal when early in his career his Indian allies slew a French captive uncer his command, also a slave holder (along with Jefferson).

There's a third stage, the resolution of the glorious heroes of old with their limitations of environment and humanity. I now admire George Washington all the more because of his tremendous fortitude in the long War of Independence and especially the peace that followed, for his surrendering his mantle of Presidential office when he could have been a king, and on his death his freeing of his slaves, which Jefferson did not emulate.

As for the thread, Jack Campin' did not make it clear enough in his first post that it was French 'colored' troops who were short-gloried. American troops of WWII were not for the most part integrated although black troops did serve in combat conditions (I think in the book "The Painted Bird" which is quasi biographical, the main character's first meeting an American is a black sergeant from a tank, who rescues him)

I think it would have occurred to some folks that having non-white troops marching in victory over Nazism might have made a valuable point. Unfortunately such folks did not win their point.

Americans serving in the Pacific Islands were often horrified by the French plantation owners treatment of the non-white natives. In the book "Tales of the South Pacific" by Michener, he makes this point, that an enlightened American general he worked with promoted many unique individuals and gave them positions of responsibility. In the main action of the book, the taking of a Japanese held island, this man is killed, and his replacement is not so enlightened, a lot of the mavericks who starred in the war effort were limited in their advancements. Nevertheless, one of the main themes of these stories, and the central theme of the famous Broadway musical that was derived from this book, was a mature grappling with Americans and their attitudes about race. One of the main characters is an American Lieutenant who is in love with a Polynesian girl but he can't take her home. He is conscious of his love and of his prejudice; he can't resolve them. He sings a brilliant song "You've Got To Be Taught" that lasts all of 90 seconds while it summarizes the entire message. Another character is a young nurse who falls in love with a Frenchmen with mixed race children. She has similar feelings, but she resolves them after a lot of turmoil.

In short, I think America's confrontation with race and racism is one of the main themes of our existence, and has been with us since the beginning, and cannot be summarized by the event of one march through Paris. It is a multi-front engagement of ideas and ideals with many battles, many advances and a few retreats.

It involves every American to this day, and it ain't over.

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I got to visit Oahu, Hawaii about 12 years ago and one of my fondest memories was getting on the small boat that the U S Navy provides to visit the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. I sat with Japanese and German tourists, and the boat was commanded and operated by a young black female Ensign. The War in a nutshell. American in a nutshell.