The Ugly American

by

Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Ugly American makes teaching easy.
Major Monet is a French officer leading his Foreign Legionnaires against the Communists in Vietnam. Monet comes from a legendary military family and is a decorated commander, yet he consistently loses every battle he fights in Vietnam. With frustration, Monet cannot understand why the Communists keep beating them, despite having far less weapons and equipment. When Tex Wolchek suggests that to fight Communists, they need to think and fight like Communists, Monet is reticent to abandon centuries of French military history. However, Tex and MacWhite eventually convince him that Communist literature, especially Mao’s writings on warfare, may hold useful and innovative ideas. When Monet finally puts Communist military tactics into practice, he and his Legionnaires have their first real victory in months. However, when Monet and Tex try to convince their military commanders that they need to rethink their military strategy and learn from the Communists, their superiors viciously dismiss them.

Monet Quotes in The Ugly American

The The Ugly American quotes below are all either spoken by Monet or refer to Monet. 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:
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

“It doesn’t have a thing to do with the quality of the French fighting, or with your Legionnaires […] It’s just that the Communists are fighting by a different rule book. And, like a damn fool, it’s taken me almost a month to remember that I once read it. When I was in Korea, I picked up a book by Mao Tse-tung. Now, Monet, don’t kid yourself about this. Mao is one hell of a bright guy. I hate what he stands for, but he does have a kind of genius.”

Related Characters: James “Tex” Wolchek (speaker), Gilbert MacWhite, Monet, Mao Tse-tung
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Ugly American PDF

Monet Quotes in The Ugly American

The The Ugly American quotes below are all either spoken by Monet or refer to Monet. 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:
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
).
Chapter 11 Quotes

“It doesn’t have a thing to do with the quality of the French fighting, or with your Legionnaires […] It’s just that the Communists are fighting by a different rule book. And, like a damn fool, it’s taken me almost a month to remember that I once read it. When I was in Korea, I picked up a book by Mao Tse-tung. Now, Monet, don’t kid yourself about this. Mao is one hell of a bright guy. I hate what he stands for, but he does have a kind of genius.”

Related Characters: James “Tex” Wolchek (speaker), Gilbert MacWhite, Monet, Mao Tse-tung
Page Number: 112
Explanation and Analysis: