General Thé Character Analysis in The Quiet American

An enigmatic Vietnamese military commander, General Thé uses violence and cruelty to achieve his political aims, but it’s never made clear what these aims are. Thé becomes an object of great fascination for Alden Pyle, the young idealist who believes that Thé represents the Third Force prophesized by York Harding. In the end, Greene doesn’t explain to us whether Thé is a noble idealist, as Pyle thinks, or a brutal “bandit,” as Fowler suspects.

General Thé Quotes in The Quiet American

The The Quiet American quotes below are all either spoken by General Thé or refer to General Thé. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Books edition of The Quiet American published in 2004.

“We are the old colonial peoples, Pyle, but we’ve learnt a bit of reality, we’ve learned not to play with matches. This Third Force—it comes out of a book, that’s all. General Thé’s only a bandit with a few thousand men: he’s not a national democracy.” It was as if he had been staring at me through a letter-box to see who was there and now, letting the flap fall, had shut out the unwelcome intruder. His eyes were out of sight. “I don’t know what you mean, Thomas.” “Those bicycle bombs. They were a good joke, even though one man did lose a foot. But, Pyle, you can’t trust men like Thé. They aren’t going to save the East from Communism. We know their kind.”

Related Characters: (speaker), (speaker),

Related Symbols:

Page Number and Citation: 149

Explanation and Analysis:

General Thé Character Timeline in The Quiet American

The timeline below shows where the character General Thé appears in The Quiet American. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...private armies exchange services for money, including the Caodaists, a Vietnamese religious group led by General Thé to fight against both the French and the Communists. (full context)

At the festival in Tanyin, Fowler overhears talk of General Thé . The Pope’s deputy tells Fowler that Thé has kidnapped a cardinal from Tanyin, but... (full context)

...festival. As they talk, a Caodaist commandant, who, Fowler remembers, had been an assistant to General Thé , greets Pyle. Fowler senses that Pyle and the commandant want to talk alone, and... (full context)

...fine white powder. Mr. Heng explains to Fowler that he’s seen Pyle in touch with General Thé . Heng adds that he and Chou have been experimenting with plastic moulds—“not for toys”—on... (full context)

Fowler writes a story about the “Bicycle Bombs,” in which he blames General Thé for the damage. He thinks that Pyle must have been responsible for the bicycles, and... (full context)

...and tells him not to trust too much in York Harding. He warns Pyle that General Thé doesn’t represent the Third Force Harding discusses—on the contrary, Thé is only a small-minded “bandit.”... (full context)

...Pyle has believed in York Harding and the Third Force, he’s enabled a dangerous thug, General Thé , who clearly has no qualms about killing dozens of Vietnamese innocents. He dares Pyle... (full context)

...calmly, and explains that Pyle is “his own master,” even though he seems loyal to General Thé . Heng suggests that Fowler go to the police and tell them what he knows,... (full context)

Inside Fowler’s flat, Pyle explains that he’s seen General Thé that afternoon. He insists that the people of Vietnam aren’t complicated—indeed, they’re like children. Fowler... (full context)