Regret

The reason the war started wasn't worth it after what had happened. William Defoe referenced this feeling when he commented that he believed what he was fighting for in '65 but not in '68 in Platoon. Joker probably regretted killing that girl at the end even though she killed his friends. She was fighting just as he was, for her country. But what were the American's fighting for, the prevention of the spread of Communism into a country full of rice patty farmers? After years of killing civilians Defoe couldn't convince himself, that he or his country were doing the right thing anymore. A soilder has to believe in what he is fighting for and if he doesn't why fight, right? Patton had good reason to instill courage into his men in his speech. They were fighting to prevent genocide that the Nazis were committing on innocent groups of people; they weren't killing innocent people and women and children like many American soldiers did in Vietnam.