What Happened To John Reed's War?

John Reed, an American journalist, did not believe the United States should enter the Austro-Serbian War, or that there should ever be any war in general. He recognized the war as being driven by greed and imperialism or more specifically, it was a “clash of traders” (74). He notes that although the English and French were against the German, they had been mercilessly claiming the entire world long before the Germans even had an army. In other words, the English and French were only opposing the Germans because they were trying to take parts of the world they felt entitled to. Obviously, Reed opposed the war efforts in different countries and this was made evident through his reports during the war.
For instance, John Reed depicted the unease
He described the way he and his company covered themselves from “head to foot with camphorated oil, put kerosene in [their] hair, filled [their] pockets with mothballs, […] sprinkled naphthaline through [their] baggage; and boarded a train so saturated with formalin that [their] eyes and lungs burned as with quicklime” (145). They followed this tedious, unpleasant procedure in order to avoid contacting the various diseases going around at the time. Not only did he list a plethora of diseases, but he also mentioned that this was a standard procedure for those travelling to Serbia. In the same unembellished tone, he mentioned that “now there were only a hundred thousand sick in all Serbia, and only a thousand deaths a day,” there were “hundreds of dying and delirious in the mud of the streets,” and “less than two hundred [of four hundred doctors] were left” (145). Reed’s delivery of these facts only makes the horror that much more sickening and inhumane to the readers of his reports. It seems as through after living through these atrocities, Reed is desensitized to human suffering and mass death. To someone who is not accustom to such horrendous acts, this attitude is very unsettling and frightening. Reed uses his matter-of-fact tone to further induce fear and a sort of disorientation in the reader when describing the ghastly conditions of the countries at
Reed arrived at the strange hotel and was immediately met with suspicion. Though they denied it at first, the hotel workers believed Reed and his companion were spies. Their initial offense was speaking German, and although they presented the fact that they had permission to visit as journalists, the staff were ordered to keep watch on them and they were ordered to remain in their rooms until the matter was settled. They also confiscated their personal belongings for further inspection. The staff noted that the men had a list of names, to which the men clarified that it was simply a list of names of Americans caught by the Russians. The staff questioned why all the names just happened to be Jewish and whether Reed and his companion actually believed that Jews could be American. The men attempted to make it clear that Americans can also be Jewish, at which the staff did not believe. The arguing and suspicion of such simple facts demonstrates just how cautious the Russian government was behaving during the war. Moreover, this scene exemplifies just how caught up in their beliefs those supporting the war were. The hotel staff were dumbfounded to hear that the Jewish names on the list were also American names. In this scene, Reed implies that the war created a mentality which was