The main point of the excerpt is that readers should be aware of the damage that the war has done to a generation of men who were impacted by it, and read the book with this idea in mind.
The epigraph wants to make sure that readers who approach this book do it with the same purpose as the one with which the author wrote it. He does not want the readers to think of this book as an accusation, a confession or an adventure.
Requiring the vaccination of schoolchildren, even if their religion opposes it
It symbolizes the readiness of the United States to protect
its territories with the use of force if need be. After its westward expansion, the U.S. was
now able to exert its full authority in the continent and made it clear that it
would not tolerate any interference from outside countries on its territories.
