[UnderseaLcpl]

Oh you got me started now.......

Back to the OP about why people generally ( at least in the U.S.) have not heard of the Bataan death march goes all the way back to the propoganda machine of those days.
Saying that if you go into the army and are captured you will go on a "death march" or be subjected to any other horrors was tantamount to political suicide at that point in the war.
Remember that in the first half of the century news coverage of the horrors of war was censored to agreat degree and volunteer enlistments would have dropped dramatically ( especially concerning the isolastionist sentiment that existed at the time)
Not that this is the only example of such a thing. Who remembers being taught about the holocaust? How many genocides since then have been commmitted that virtually no American knows about? In fact, who ever talks about the OTHER 6 million people killed in the holocaust? No one.
The simple truth is that if there is not a movie or a government hype about it Americans just don't know it. It is a disgrace to our culture that our media and our educational system are subject to censorship and filtration on par with the U.S.S.R. (unintentional though it may be)
Ok one more example. Excluding the presumably educated gamers who prefer more or less accurate simulations of WW2 submarine warfare, who in the U.S. knows that the civil war was started over a tax? Specifically an import tax? Ask anyone in this country and I will bet 80 percent say that it was over slavery. If the U.S. civil war was over slavery then why did Lincoln not free the slaves in the only two slave states he had sovereignty over?( West Virginia and Kentucky)
This is starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist rant but the fact is, there are very few instances of black and white in history and the winners write the history books.
I apologize for the bluntness of my remarks but as a veteran of OIF 2 and 3 I have seen firsthand the effect propoganda has had on people. In my unti the attitude was "screw'em" they're just ragheads".
Very well, if "ragheads" do not deserve freedom why draw the line there? Why not asians? Or whites? Or Hispanics? Or Jews? Or Blacks? Or Slavs? Or whatever?
Again I apologize for the length of this rant but in summary my point is that all too often "authorities" determine the shape of history and present conceptions. In particular the "Death March" was omitted because of the derogatory effects on morale.
Lesson learned; Remember the ideals of our forefathers and NEVER entrust your welfare to the government.

Constructive criticism is welcome.