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The Not-Always Greatest Generation

World At War

Tom Brokaw and others have championed an entire generation as heroes, but many were bigoted, criminal, and dishonest. David Margolick, author of Dreadful, on one soldier’s vividly honest writing about the behavior and crimes of American GIs during World War II.

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They flooded the beleaguered city with their Palmolive soap, clothes, cigarettes, and clothes, all on the American taxpayers’ tab. They gorged themselves in their mess halls, tossing away mountains of food as starving locals looked on.

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