Product Description
The multi-million-copy bestseller that coined the phrase for tragic American blunders abroad. First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing expos of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. Based on fact, the book's eye-opening stories and sketches drew a devastating picture of how the United States was losing the struggle with Communism in Asia. Combining gripping storytelling with an urgent call to action, the book prompted President Eisenhower to launch a study of our military aid program that led the way to much-needed reform.
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 If you think THE Ugly American is bad, you'd be surprised... read the book! ( jrboeke )
I first encountered this book as part of an undergraduate political science class on American politics. Among other long and dry reading assignments, I found myself thoroughly engaged in the book and looking forward to spending time reading Lederer and Burdick's work. In fact, I'd have to say that it has been my favorite book since that political science class almost 25 years ago.
I have read it at least 20 times in those 25 years (often as a source for a paper I was writing, but also for pleasure). While this is not a typical "beach read" I have re-read it while traveling and at the beach on several occasions. This past week I was on a business trip and sleeping in a hotel room. This combination of factors is usually good for a bout of insomnia on my part, and this trip was no different. Lederer and Burdick came to my rescue yet again and provided a thoroughly enjoyable way to pass through several hours of insomnia.
The story(ies) centers on a fictional country in Southeast Asia named Sarkhan. The book's chapters compare and contrast the competence and incompetence on the part of the diplomats, politicos, military officers and ex-pats in Sarkham. Heroes include Ambassador Gilbert McWhite, John Colvin, and Homer Atkins (THE ugly American) --- all men who took the time to learn the culture in which they were being planted.
It is easy (now, with 20/20 hindsight) to see this book as a parable stemming from the Vietnam War. However, the book was written well before American stepped up its involvement in Vietnam (in 1958) and was purportedly read by President Eisenhower and responsible for many of the reforms that he introduced into America's foreign aid programs. The general thesis of the authors was that US diplomats (and other foreign station workers/advisors) who failed to study and adapt to the cultures they were entering, were doomed to failure (or worse). Worse still, the American bureaucracy wasn't interested in the opinions of the Foreign Service staff that did study and understand the cultures into which they were placed.
Given that this book was written at the tail end of the McCarthy era, the insights of Lederer and Burdick are quite exceptional (if fact, some government agencies sought to ban the book in Asia and in many ways that (failed) effort can be seen as one of the last "scenes" of the McCarthy era). Burdick and Lederer are at once, tongue in cheek, cynical and satirical in their views of American foreign policy
Every time that I read this book, I can't put it down. Despite its age, it is still a fine read and certainly has additional significance in today's world as the U.S. fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although some parts of the book are antiquated (in particular the parochial way the authors treat the few female characters (in particular the Marie MacIntosh character). However that small niggle can be forgiven to a book that retains its readability and relevance 50 years after it was first published.
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Two Thumbs way up!
This book here is required reading for all United States Marines serving in diplomatic assignments overseas and I must say it was fantastic. Personally I do not consider myself a reader but the first chapter just sucks you in. I read the book in two days which is fast for me, so that's saying a lot. It paints a beautiful picture of all the things that are wrong with the American foreign service and by the time you are finish reading it you begin to analyze yourself to ensure you are not or do not become the "Ugly American."
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 Entertaining but not enough depth ( nigey_ )
I certainly enjoyed reading this book -it was well written -but have more reservations about it that many of the other reviewers. First, for full disclosure I'm not a foreign policy expert, nor have first hand experience. However:
I do feel the issue of a lack of competence is not just the sole domain of the American government; I'm sure in Soviet times there were just as many problems with incompetence that were associated with political wrangling, ignorance or egos from within the Kremlin as well, perhaps even more. Further, instead of stressing competence from competing ideologies, it seems largely forgotten that the disenfranchisement of the people with their own governments might have mattered more -and subsequently made the people more susceptible to desperately grasp one ideology or the other. In the cold war times competing ideologies appeared less concerned about the wholesome nature or "goodness" of a government, more just which way politically it was leaning (did the people really matter then? Surely not necessarily a great way to win the hearts and minds of the people of those countries anyway?).
Additionally it seems to be a common theme for countries to be negatively introspective at times -I'm from the UK where newspaper reports regularly decried the poor standard of science education in the UK as the worst of the Western countries, yet when I moved to the USA I was surprized to see a newspaper report state that American science education was the poorest of the Western countries! Moreover, I believe some of the "solutions" mentioned in the book were overly simplistic. Introducing a new breed of chicken or cow to another country can be plain disastrous as well as helpful, and certainly can have complex ramifications in an ecosystem. Surely other more complex and demanding (and perhaps necessary) solutions and questions were plainly ignored -why were people embracing communism? Were people more resentful of the colonial influences than enthusiastic about communism? How do you get the mandate of language and cultural learning implemented in the system? It's one (easy) thing to say you need to do it, it's another thing to suggest a way forward to implement this, particularly in that political environment. I know this novel doesn't necessarily cover this area, but I think it suffers from supplying solutions but not how to implement them.
Lastly, I felt the book afforded those readers who wanted to feel smugly superior ample opportunity to do so -perhaps just a little too much opportunity. Everything in hindsight is simple, particularly when it's conveyed in (what I believe) to be a simplistic manner with solutions spoon fed by chapter. The problem here is that everyone would like simple straightforward solutions; the reality is that simple straightforward solutions usually only appear to be so, particularly in the murky context of one country attempting to exercise influence over another. Regardless, I really enjoyed reading the book; a great read and a story that is sure to stir up debate and thought, which is what really good books do. I give it 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars based on these strengths, with a star removed for its lack of depth and tackling problems too simplistically.
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I can't believe every American hasn't read this!
The term "ugly American" gets thrown around a lot, but most people have never read the book. What surprises me is that, with our problems in Iraq and the rest of the world, every military and civilian leader is not quoting the book extensively. It is a blueprint for what went wrong in Vietnam (written before Vietnam) and now Iraq. Won't we learn?
Not great literature, but a great read. This is not a dull analysis, but a good story that moves and makes one think.
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Book Review - THE UGLY AMERICAN by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick ( thepaxdomini )
I've had this book lying around for a long time, but I never read it until it was assigned in my International Mass Communication class, even though it's been a classic for fifty years. The novel is set in the fictional southeast Asian nation of Sarkhan. It was written before the Vietnam War, and proved eerily prescient concerning how and why the United States would lose that war. What is most frustrating is how the United States continues to make the same foreign policy mistakes today.
Most significant is the theme that the majority of Americans who go to Sarkhan to help or work are woefully ignorant of what is required of them. These Americans are unable to understand the need to learn the Sarkhanese culture and language. They are unprepared to put forth the necessary effort and unwilling to make such a commitment. Many Americans in Sarkhan are more concerned with their own business interests than with sincerely helping the Sarkhanese. This collective approach culminates in an ineffective policy of throwing money at the problem regardless of the results, which are most often quite poor. The most alarming aspect of this mindset is the consummate arrogance that the American policies will work in spite of continued and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The reader shares the manifold frustration of those few characters who understand how to achieve results in Sarkhan. The powers-that-be are, for a variety of shameful reasons, by and large unwilling to accept these characters' simple, pragmatic solutions, despite the success they have achieved. Numerous characters remark on how simple it would be for America to win the hearts and minds of the Sarkhanese and drive out the communists, but America's continued unwillingness to be flexible in its approach only compounds their frustration. Certainly the irony of the novel's title is not lost here. Homer Atkins, the "ugly American", is one of these few people who understand how to interact productively with the Sarkhanese, and he does so with great success. Meanwhile, the attractive, rich and well-to-do continue to flog America's ineffective policies.
Although the authors were experts on the topic, the novel is not without its minor faults. The dialogue is stilted in places, particularly early on. But this is hardly unforgivable; the dialogue is not a focal point of the novel, and the accepted writing style for fiction was different fifty years ago, and continually changes. Additionally, the pacing is good, which helps overcome that particular weakness. The introduction of a new character nearly every chapter is unorthodox, but works fairly well as a means by which to portray the myriad examples of the various strategies of foreign diplomacy.
The novel is not a tremendously enjoyable read, nor is it supposed to be. The authors want the reader to feel the frustrations they feel, the frustrations that the few who employ effective methods feel. In sharing this frustration, the reader comes away from the novel with a clearer understanding of the situation, and with the knowledge that there are alternatives to the United States' ongoing policies of antagonism and alienation.
The Ugly American has become a timeless classic, and this is immensely regrettable. That the plain and simple explanations of how to and how not to achieve success in foreign policy have been and continue to be utterly disregarded by the United States government in spite of repeated failures and constant admonitions is nothing short of a travesty. Had the United States heeded the warnings of this book and changed their policies accordingly, the novel would certainly be left with little to say to a twenty-first century American audience. Until such a sweeping diplomatic overhaul occurs, however, The Ugly American will remain valuable to each succeeding generation.
In the world in which we live, this novel must be
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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