The man actually read the Koran!
On black soldiers: "Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor."[42
Patton stated that performance was more important than race or religious affiliation:[43] "I don't give a damn who the man is. He can be a nigger or a Jew, but if he has the stuff and does his duty, he can have anything I've got. By God! I love him."[43][44]
Later, Patton addressed a group of African-American tankers, saying:
Men, you're the first Negro tankers to ever fight in the American Army. I would never have asked for you if you weren't good. I have nothing but the best in my Army. I don't care what color you are as long as you go up there and kill those Kraut sons of bitches. Everyone has their eyes on you and is expecting great things from you. Most of all your race is looking forward to you. Don't let them down and damn you, don't let me down![45]
Patton also insisted on the assignment of some black officers as judges in military tribunals involving black defendants,[43] and he spent more time with his African-American aide, Sergeant Meeks, than with nearly anyone else while in Europe,[43] developing a relationship of mutual respect that transcended that of a general with his valet.
Patton was horrified at what he found when his Third Army liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Local German citizens claimed that they didn't know what was going on, though at least a few admitted to knowing of the atrocities but insisted they had been powerless to stop it. He ordered American troops to round up the approximately 2,000 local Germans and march them through the camps. He wanted them to see the atrocities firsthand.
After reading the Koran and observing North Africans, he wrote to his wife, "Just finished reading the Koran—a good book and interesting." Patton had a keen eye for native customs and methods, wrote knowingly of local architecture, even rated the progress of word-of-mouth rumor in Arab country at 40–60 miles a day. In spite of his regard for the Koran, he concluded, "To me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Mohammad and the utter degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of the Arab. . . . Here, I think, is a text for some eloquent sermon on the virtues of Christianity" (both Patton and Halsey were Episcopalians).[47][48]
Patton was highly critical of the victorious Allies use of German forced labor. He commented in his diary "I’m also opposed to sending PW’s to work as slaves in foreign lands (in particular, to France) where many will be starved to death." He also noted "It is amusing to recall that we fought the revolution in defence of the rights of man and the civil war to abolish slavery and have now gone back on both principles."[50]
Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star
...
So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me.
...
So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more
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