Feb 01 2009
Relevant Reading: The Ugly American
Archived from May 12, 2008
Book cover from original 1958 issue
Exactly one week ago I finished reading The Ugly American, a now classic novel first published in 1958 at the crest the Cold War in America. I first came across the book at a community book sale at my college library. The title immediately drew me as worthy of at least a glance and the reviews stamped on the front, back and first few pages made me wonder if this book was as illicit as the atomic secret itself.
But at its heart, The Ugly American is not simply a scandal ridden, salacious rag of fantastic fiction but the brilliant fact-based creation of writers’ Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer written to shed much needed light on what they see as America’s domineering, arrogant and ethnocentric approach to international diplomacy. Set in the fictional Southeast Asian nation of Sarkhan, the book depicts a plight similar to that of Cold War Vietnam, Burma (Myanmar), Laos and Thailand. Sarkhan is at brink of disaster as the Soviets, and Chinese aim to exploit its poverty for political gain.
Each chapter is a brief but very crisp snapshot of the seemingly blind diplomats of the time stumbling and bumbling though language gaps, cultural gaffs and an astonishing desire to isolate themselves by throwing lavish cocktail parties and hiring the locals as servants to provide all the comforts of home. None of the diplomats dare to venture out of their luxury suites and meet locals. Many of the American foreign ambassadors do not speak any foreign language and are thus deceived when gathering information. When Ambassador Lou Sears finds he has been defamed in a Sarkhanese political cartoon, he is unable to read it and is therefore able to be easily duped into thinking it’s not so bad by his Sarkhanese counterpart. And while hijacking a U.S. shipment of rice, the Soviets are able to stencil a “Gift from Russia” in Sarkhanese because, after all… Americans don’t speak Sarkhanese.
In the Chapter entitled “Lessons of War” two proud soldiers one American named , the other a French Major named Monet find that when confronted by newly promoted successor to Ambassador Sears, Gilbert MacWhite, they had ever read the writings of Mao and were fighting the wrong way the whole time.
MacWhite then becomes the voice of reason in Washington who relies on the native people and insiders to tell and show there way of life. These heroes come in the form of a milkman, who is able to infiltrate the Communists, a priest, who promotes democracy through simply learning the native tongue, a chicken farmer who knows how to help breed bigger, better chickens for food and lastly, the “Ugly American” of the book’s title, Homer Atkins a dirty-fingernailed engineer who invents a simple bicycle powered pump to pump water to the people in a local Sarkhanese village. All the while MacWhite’s listening to the common man gets him into boiling hot water throughout the entire novel with the overall premise being that common sense isn’t so common. Each story is based on a real life encounter had by foreign officer or an amalgam of several stories in one.
In short, this book reminded me of Iraq is so many ways. The news often talks about insurgencies infiltrating U.S. forces after we thought we could just show up and save the day. My friends tell me of a shortage of Arabic speakers and often soldiers describe themselves as fighting ghosts whom they never see, similar to the Chinese Communist fight of 50 years ago. As well, I still run into cocky, domineering Americans now and again who think they live on an island. Have we learned anything? Scary. Very Scary. Regardless, this book is well worth a read.
Note: There is a 1963 film adaptation of the same name starring Marlon Brando.
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