Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now's Similar View of Foreigners

In Achebe's criticism of Heart of Darkness, he quotes Conrad's writing, which says, "The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there-- there you could look at a thing monstrous and free...it was unearthly." In that passage, Conrad is describing his experience when "meeting" Africans. He's basically saying that because these Africans are not as...(to say "advanced" would be biased, simply because 'we' [Americans] consider ourselves much more technically advanced, Africans may consider their rituals advanced, simply based on how comfortable their living is...)... similar habitually to Americans, they become dehumanized and "monstrous". This ignorant view of foreigners, where they're judged for their rituals and behavior rather than trying to understand, is prominent in Apocalypse Now also. When looking at the Vietnam war, everything is based on this view of ignorance. To the vietnamese, the Americans are less than animals, and DEFINITELY visa versa. Achebe writes, "quite simply it is desire...western psychology to set Africa up as a foil to Europe"...there's no desire to learn about history so different than our own, the exact same can be applied to Apocalypse Now and the Vietnam War.