I can imagine. Hard to fight propaganda back then. Most people still believe it today.
Discussion
He was 17 when he enlisted. 21 when the war ended. He was too young to have a good understanding of why he a midwestern farm boy was in east Africa lol
It would be a brutal experience to go through fighting in a war, internalizing the war narrative(s), and forming a sense of identity from it only to have it eroded over the coming years by contradicting actions by the government and other sources.