The Failure of the American Foreign Service
In 1958, political scientist Eugene Burdick and naval officer William Lederer published The Ugly American, a series of interconnected vignettes that together offer a scathing critique of America’s foreign policy in Southeast Asia. The political novel centers around American presence in the fictional Asian nation of Sarkhan, though it also features stories set in Vietnam, Burma, and Cambodia. Although the stories are fictional, they reflect actual historical events, and several characters have specific…
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Communism vs. Capitalism
Set in the mid-20th century, The Ugly American is framed by the Cold War-era tension between Eastern Communism and Western Capitalism. American and Russian diplomats compete with each other in every Southeast Asian country to sway the regional governments toward their own ideology, with Communism maintaining a significant lead. The American Foreign Service’s failure to represent America well also reflects their failure to make Capitalism seem like a better ideology than Communism. Building on their…
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Grassroots Development
Despite its numerous examples of the American Foreign Service’s failures, The Ugly American also provides models for how Americans Foreign Service workers can succeed. After the engineer Homer Atkins and his wife Emma realize that Vietnam does not need massive roads and dams—as the American government asked him to build—they move to Sarkhan to figure out how to help the people who need it most. In doing so, Homer and Emma model how to live…
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Self-Interested Philanthropy
Both the French and the Americans claim to maintain their presence in Southeast Asia to help those countries develop, posturing themselves as humanitarians offering aid to poorer people. However, America and France both blatantly use their positions in such countries to line their own pockets and advance their own interests, even when it hurts those countries’ growth and independence. Although the French and the Americans claim to help nations like Sarkhan and Vietnam develop, they…
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Racism and Cultural Insensitivity
Despite living and working in another country, most members of the American Foreign Service hold racist views and lack awareness of the cultures they live amongst. Rather than embodying a progressive and democratic society, America’s representatives showcase the worst aspects of American superiority and ignorance of other cultures. Naturally, such attitudes disrupt productive and healthy cooperation between American diplomats and their Southeast Asian counterparts. The Ugly American depicts the American Foreign Service as rife with…
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