Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ugly American, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Failure of the American Foreign Service
Communism vs. Capitalism
Grassroots Development
Self-Interested Philanthropy
Racism and Cultural Insensitivity
Summary
Analysis
Thomas Knox fights in World War II, the operates Knox Farm in Iowa until 1952. In 1953, Knox accepts an invitation to consult for the American Foreign Service in Cambodia. After a year in Cambodia, Tom is the best-known American in the country. He roams the countryside in his jeep, speaking a mix of broken Cambodian, English, and French, and helps villages in anyway he can, especially by tending to their weak chickens. Tom is friendly, generous—he spends his entire salary in Cambodia—and loves Cambodian food, endearing him to the rural people.
Like Hillandale, Tom wins the respect of the local people by being friendly, humble, and doing his best to live as they live, eat as they eat, speak as they speak. This again suggests that American Foreign Service workers can build positive relationships with local people if they are willing to abandon their own sense of self-superiority and share in the local life and culture. Simple human connection can be a powerful diplomatic tool.
Themes
Tom advises the villagers on where to find calcium deposits in the hills and how to mix it into their chicken feed. He gives medicine to diseased chickens, earning himself a reputation as a poultry healer. He also possesses an extraordinary knowledge of anything related to farming, and shares that knowledge with every Cambodian that he can. One evening, a village headman asks Tom why he spends his time helping Cambodians rather than making his money in America. Knox can’t quite explain that he’s always been drawn to the exotic mystery of Asia and the Far East. Even so, Tom tells the man that he loves Cambodia, and the headman tells Tom that his village loves him in return.
Tom builds powerful relationships with Cambodian villages by simply offering his expertise and doing what good he can. Although Tom is not building massive new installations, his simple acts of goodwill improve America’s reputation in Cambodia. Like Finian and the Martins and John Colvin, Tom models effective grassroots development and demonstrates how to build positive relationships with local people.
Themes
Two weeks later, Tom attends an American Aid conference in Phnom Penh. He listens attentively while other workers propose massive roads and multi-million dollar projects. When it comes to his turn, he simply proposes that they import a few thousand American chickens to breed into Cambodia’s poultry stock and strengthen it, which would result in a higher egg output and an important protein boost for the villagers. The chairman of the meeting shuts Tom down, remarking that Tom brought this same plan last year, but the government wants big plans that will immediately help people. Tom is furious. He thinks his plan could increase the country’s egg production by 200 percent, which would be a far greater benefit than any new road.
Tom’s superiors’ refusal to back his small project suggests that the American Foreign Service overlooks cost-effective and practical ideas in favor of development projects that sound impressive, but may not actually be useful—they want positive propaganda more than they wants to actually help Cambodians. Tom’s belief that he can improve Cambodian nutrition with a few thousand chickens suggests that many solutions to common problems are not even expensive or difficult to execute, they simply require patience and follow-through.
Themes
Tom asks a Cambodian governor what he thinks. The Cambodian agrees that egg production is important, but the American chairman badgers the Cambodian until he admits that they also need mechanized farms. Tom feels that he is failing the villagers, which he thinks of as his “constituents,” and he makes his final statement: either the Americans back his egg plan, or he will resign, return to Washington, and “raise hell” until he gets the support he needs. The chairman accepts Tom’s immediate resignation and Tom leaves.
The American chairman badgers the Cambodian governor into agreeing with him, suggesting that the Americans don’t actually care what Cambodians want; the Americans only want to build projects they think are important. Tom’s feeling that the villagers are his “constituents” suggests that he feels a personal stake in their wellbeing.
Themes
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The day before Tom flies back to America, a high-ranking French diplomat asks Tom if he would allow them to take him on an expenses-paid tour of Asia on his way home. Tom suspects the diplomat has ulterior motives, but accepts, enticed by the chance to see foreign lands and exotic sights.
Although Tom is thus far depicted as a noble worker who cares about the Cambodian people, the French diplomat’s ability to sway him suggests that even good-hearted people can be corrupted by luxury and excitement.
Themes
Tom flies to Jakarta, Indonesia aboard a luxurious French plane, and the French Embassy takes him on a cultural tour filled with dancing girls and excellent food, treating Tom as an esteemed guest. He feels his anger start to ebb away. The French take him from Jakarta to New Delhi, India, where he again goes on wonderful tours and eats excellent food. From there, Tom flies to Nice, France. In the plane bound for France, Tom attempts to write up his thoughts from Cambodia and his criticisms of the Foreign Service, but just can’t summon the same passion as he had before.
The French diplomats effectively buy Tom off, curtailing his anger and passion to create change by treating him to luxury and exotic sights. This darkly suggests that not only do the French and American diplomats not undertake effective development projects, they actively undermine good people like Tom who want to create real change. This suggests that such diplomats are not only unproductive but counterproductive to helping local people.
Themes
Tom stays a week in Nice in a beautiful French hotel, then another several days in Paris in a Cambodian hotel. The hotel owners imply to him that such distinguished guests as himself are “above paying hotel bills.” The Cambodian arranges a luxury suite for Tom on a ship sailing for New York. On the ship, Tom again tries to write out his anger, but now cannot summon any of it. Even the memories of the villages seem distant, replaced by his memories of the lovely journey home. Eight months later, in his Iowa farm, Tom thinks such anger came from someone else entirely, and seems childish in retrospect.
Tom’s nobility and desire to help Cambodian villagers completely collapses, suggesting that even the best grassroots developers can be seduced by luxurious living. Tom’s months of travel effectively pushes the Cambodian villagers and their poverty out of his mind, which suggests that many Foreign Service workers simply neglect to recognize the needs of local people, becoming consumed instead by parties, socializing, and their own comfort.
Themes
In Sarkhan, an American chicken expert also tries to convince MacWhite that Sarkhan needs healthier chickens. The man explains that with better egg production, they could save millions of dollars a year on food imports. MacWhite’s advisors confirm that the man’s math is correct. MacWhite writes to the American Aid Mission in Cambodia, but the chairman writes back telling MacWhite to drop it. They had an egg expert of their own, but he “just didn’t work out” and went home. MacWhite drops the idea, which is his “second major mistake.”
Although MacWhite genuinely wants to do what is best for Sarkhan, he follows the advice of people with lesser intentions and thus fails the Sarkhanese people anyway. MacWhite and Tom’s personal failures suggest that even well-intentioned people can fail to be effective diplomats or create real change in the countries they work in. Their mistakes thus serve as a warning not to be seduced by luxury or heed the advice of the wrong people.
Themes
