Re: Race Relations and Korea

[Ben Frank <ben.frank@tcs.wap.org>]

Akin to this discussion is the fact that when I interviewed LtGen Pedro A.
del Valle, a Puerto Rican of Spanish descent, a 1915 graduate of the Naval
Academy, 1st MarDiv artillery commander on Guadalcanal, and 1st MarDiv CG
on Okinawa, we discussed his tour in the mid-1930s as assistant Naval
Attache in Rome and was in fact an observer of Italian Army operations in
Ethiopia. He later wrote a classified report which was held in all the S&C
Sections in the Navy and Marine Corps. The point of this story is that on
his wall in his den where I interviewed him were citations signed by
Mussolini and Bagdoglio. I was impressed and somewhat leery about going
into that too much as he developed a very white racist posture in his
post-retirement days. BMF