John Musgrave in “Unfinished Business”

I only killed one human being in Vietnam, and that was the first man that I ever killed. I was sick with guilt about killing that guy and thinking "I'm going to have to do this for the next 13 months? I'm-I'm going to go crazy." And I saw a Marine step on a Bouncing Betty mine, and that's when I made my deal with the devil, and that I said, "I will never kill another human being as long as I'm in Vietnam. However, I will waste as many gooks as I can find. I'll wax as many dinks as I can find. I'll smoke as many zips as I can find. But I ain't gonna kill anybody, you know?" Turn a subject into an object. It's racism 101. It turns out to be a very necessary tool when you have children fighting your wars, for them to stay sane doing their work.