Published in 1958, the book "The Ugly American" is far too often confused with another cold-war-era novel set in Southeast Asia, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American", which appeared in 1955, was also set in SE Asia and made into an excellent movie.
"The Ugly American" has become a shorthand for Americans who wear tank tops to the Vatican or eat Big Macs in Beijing but in the book and the movie they are not drunken backpackers or seniors wearing socks and sandals but the so-called elite of the diplomatic corps, whose insensitivity to local language and customs leads to observations in the book like this: "The simple fact is, Mr. Ambassador, that average Americans, in their natural state, if you will excuse the phrase, are the best ambassadors a country can have,” a Filipino minister tells an American official. "They are not suspicious, they are eager to share their skills, they are generous. But something happens to most Americans when they go abroad. Many of them are not average ... they are second-raters." As the authors write:
the book is still as relevant today as it was then.
The book caused a sensation in diplomatic circles and had major political implications. The Peace Corps was established during the Kennedy administration partly as a result of the book. The bestseller has remained continuously in print and is one of the most influential American political novels. It has been called an "iconic Cold War text". Read it here.
Plenty of good reading and viewing for the weekend.
