The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick - A

     This novel was published in 1958. The cover of the book refers to it as 'The Classic Bestseller Whose Title Became A Synonym For America's Failed Foreign Policy'. Most of the events depicted occurred earlier, during the French war in Vietnam. It takes place in fictional Sarkhan in Southeast Asia.

    It is less a novel telling a story than it is a brilliant political document set out in a series of vignettes. To read this expose of our incompetence is to marvel at the book's insight and vision. It is hard to believe it was written almost a decade before President Johnson  escalated the war.

     Our ambassadors in Asia come off poorly, in particular,  the first sent to Sarkhan. Lucky Sears lost his senate seat, would have preferred a federal judgeship and took the job as consolation. He didn't know where the country was on the map, certainly couldn't speak the language and didn't particularly care about Sarkhan, and didn't understand he was being mocked in the local press. And, no one told him.

     Whether in Sarkhan, Vietnam, Burma or Cambodia, the one thing American leadership was not interested in was the work and input of Americans on the ground and in the know. A Jesuit in Burma was labeled a dissident for living in the country and successfully organizing a Burmese peasant response to communist influence. His crime was to do it from the ground up, not the top down.  American and French field officers soundly defeated a Vietminh battalion after adopting tactics espoused by Mao. They were rejected by generals who said that the officer corps of a nation that created Napoleon did not need to read Mao. An Iowa 'egg man' who tried to improve and enhance the health and productive capacity of chickens was forced to resign his position for not toeing the line on enhanced roads and military equipment. The American who rejected roads and more roads in lieu of aiding farmers pump more water to their fields was ugly and his chapter was 'The Ugly American'.  Ironically, either frm usage or the intent of the authors,  the general acceptance of our arrogant policies is what became known as "ugly".  The one senior American who understood Sarkhan, had studied its language and culture was a career foreign service officer. When he took the advice of the Americans and Sarkhanese who knew the needs of the people and asked Washington for embassy staff  who read the language, wouldn't bring their families and personal autos, commit to a two year terms, forego the luxuries of the PX and study the communist texts, he was recalled.

     The authors end with a chapter called 'A Factual Epilogue', in which they point out that this is fiction but fiction based on true stories. They close with, "We have been offering the Asian nations the wrong kind of help. We have so lost sight of our own past that we are trying to sell guns and money alone, instead of remembering that it was the quest of the dignity of freedom  that was responsible for our own way of life. All over Asia, we have found that the basic American ethic is revered and honored and imitated when possible. We must, while helping Asia toward self-sufficiency, show by example that America is still the America of freedom and hope and knowledge and law. If we succeed, we can not lose the struggle."