Throughout the war parts of the book, I felt like Vonnegut neither attacked defended the Germans. They are the reason Weary died (they took his boots in exchange of clogs) and many other American soldiers (boxcar ride), but that’s war, and that’s what any soldier (American or German) are supposed to do. On the other hand, although Vonnegut was an American soldier, he apparently insulted the Americans by the way he described the soldiers during the war. And for this reason, I feel that Vonnegut actually defended the Germans. Even though he somewhat praised the English soldiers.
I don’t believe that culture conformity is ever correct. Every person can embrace any culture but still should be proud of their own background and heritage. On the contrary, in Vonnegut’s family’s time, multiculturalism was not prevalent and Germans did were not necessarily liked by the Americans. They tried to assimilate into the American culture and suceeded, however, just as mentioned in the question, Vonegut felt sad about it. I am sure it is not easy growing up thinking that you should be ashamed of your own culture.
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