"Politics of Forgetting"
             Some nations have made immense political mistakes in the past that they feel would be best kept hidden from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, time and time again political systems have succeeded in hiding flagrant misdoing. Murderous crimes that were committed against citizens of the Soviet Union, Berlin's slaughtering of Hereros, and the rubber terrors in French and Portuguese African territories are just a few atrocities that were made to be deliberately forgotten in the public eye. Probably the most silenced tragedies took place in King Leoplod's Congo. (King Leopold's Ghost, p. 294)
             In King Leopold's Ghost, Adam Hochschild tells the veracious story of the African Congo, and the human injustice that took place there under the Belgian King's rule. In the final chapter of the novel, Hochschild discussed the "Politics of Forgetting". Governments try to cover up anything and everything that might possibly make their country look bad in the future. For example, when King Leopold erased the appalling, factual records of his reign in the Congo. Hochschild depicted not only Belgium's concealment of immoral events, but of many countries that have obscured documents to shield their citizens, and the world, from painful truths. King Leopold wanted to make absolutely sure there was no evidence of his
             tyrannical mistreatment of the Congolese when he gave the colony to the Belgian government; his people burned all documents concerning the Congo.
             "The furnaces burned for eight days, turning most of the Congo state records to ash and smoke in the sky over Brussels. . . At the same time the furnaces roared in Brussels, orders went from the palace to the Congo commanding the destruction of records there. . . Seldom has a totalitarian regime gone to such lengths to destroy s
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