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 own experience working with the foreign service, Eugene Burdick and William Lederer use their political novel to propose that America and its Capitalist allies cannot defeat Communism through major military or propaganda victories, but by understanding their opponents and truly helping the Southeast Asians they want to convert.
The American Capitalists are outwitted and outfought by Chinese and Russian Communists at every turn, suggesting that America cannot merely overpower its Communist opponents and thus win control of Southeast Asia. Ambassador Louis Sears organizes millions of pounds of rice to be shipped to Sarkhan to help alleviate food shortage—and to establish the United States as a compassionate benefactor. However, the Russian diplomats, all fluent in Sarkhanese, briefly intercept the shipment. On each sack of rice, they write in Sarkhanese that the food is a gift from the Russian government in the name of Communism. When the Americans deliver the rice, they don’t understand what the Sarkhanese text on each sack says, but only see a sea of smiling Sarkhanese peasants. The Sarkhanese peasants don’t speak English, and so only understand that white people are handing out bags of food, purportedly as a gift from the Russian government. Because of the Americans’ inability to read Sarkhanese, what should be positive propaganda for American Capitalism instead becomes propaganda for Russian Communism, demonstrating that the Communists are much cleverer and better-equipped than the Capitalists for operating in a country like Sarkhan. The Americans cannot simply buy the Sarkhanese people’s goodwill. In Vietnam, the American Major “Tex” Wolchek and the French Major Monet work together to lead a battalion of Foreign Legionnaires fighting Communists soldiers. Despite both Tex and Monet being excellent commanders leading skilled fighters with superior weapons, the Communists fight with such unusual tactics in the Vietnamese jungles and villages that the Foreign Legionnaires suffer defeat after defeat. This is particularly frustrating for Major Monet, as his long military career and centuries of French military knowledge suddenly prove worthless, suggesting that the Capitalist powers cannot beat the Communists through conventional methods, whether military or financial.
A small number of Americans begin to understand their Communist adversaries’ methods once they start to read Communist literature, suggesting that Americans must truly understand their enemy’s ideology in order to counteract it. After suffering catastrophic defeats and losing many soldiers, Tex remembers that he once read a book by the famous Chinese Communist, Mao Tse-tung, outlining a new theory of guerilla combat which operates under completely different rules than traditional European warfare. Although Monet is reticent to let go of his traditional French manner of fighting, when they start to read Mao’s war tactics once again, they suddenly understand why they’ve lost every battle thus far: the Communists ignore traditional military wisdom and approach battle in an entirely different way, which is better-suited to Vietnam’s difficult terrain. When Tex and Monet use the same guerilla tactics against the Communist fighters, they achieve their first victory in months, suggesting that the only way to effectively fight against Communism is to understand how the Communists think, even using their own tactics against them. Gilbert MacWhite, Sears’s predecessor as the Ambassador to Sarkhan, takes inspiration from Tex and Monet’s new victories. He starts reading Communist literature for himself to understand the ideology spreads and takes root in poor communities. Through his reading, MacWhite becomes so convinced that understanding Communist ideology is essential to fighting its spread across Southeast Asia that he argues any new Foreign Service worker must be well-versed in Mao, Lenin, Marx, and Engel’s writings (all leading Communists thinkers) before they ever set foot in the country.
Ambassador MacWhite argues that ultimately, the greatest way for America to fight Communism in Southeast Asia is simply to act morally, professionally, and benefit the lives of everyday people. MacWhite states that the Russians efficiently and swiftly spread Communism by being effective diplomats. Pointing to the American and French diplomats’ reputation for partying, boorish behavior, lavish lifestyles, and general ineffectiveness, he notes that every Russian foreign service worker is fluent in the local language, lives quietly and modestly, and goes to great lengths to understand the needs of local people and meet them as best they can, thus making Communism seem appealing and responsible. MacWhite declares, “the Russians will win the world by their successes in a multitude of tiny battles. Many of these will be fought around conference tables, in the rice fields of Asia, at village meetings, in schools; but mainly they will take place in the minds of men.” MacWhite thus argues that each country’s perception of American ambassadors is critically important, and that every single foreign diplomat should be modest, productive, and well-versed to live in and understand their respective cultures. MacWhite praises people like Homer Atkins and his wife Emma as model evangelists for Western Capitalism. Homer and Emma move into a small village in Vietnam, learn the language, and partner with local tradesmen to develop simple innovations which can be made, marketed, and sold by local people. Their humility and tangible benefits to the village make Homer and Emma into cherished and respected figures in the region, even though they are foreigners, developing Vietnamese appreciation and goodwill towards America, and thus toward Capitalism. MacWhite (and the authors) argues that every American Foreign Service worker can do the most to combat Communism by following Homer and Emma’s lead—living humble and productive lives, offering America’s insight and technical knowledge for the benefit of everyday people.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Communism vs. Capitalism ThemeTracker
Communism vs. Capitalism Quotes in The Ugly American
“Look, John, I told you milk is part of history. If you get this crazy milk and cattle scheme of yours going, it could in time change the economic balance in Sarkhan.”
“What’s wrong with that? That’s what I want to do.”
“Nothing. It’s a good idea. Out in the bush we’ve talked it over a lot. But you’re the wrong person to be permitted to do it. If it succeeded, the Sarkhanese would believe that America was their savior.”
“I think that the Eastern Star has, perhaps, become somewhat critical of our foreign policy. In particular, it is reluctant to have us grant air bases in this country in exchange for foreign aid. But as a representative of a democratic country, you can surely understand our reluctance to interfere with a free press.”
“The American Ambassador [Sears] is a jewel. He keeps his people tied up with meetings, social events, and greeting and briefing the scores of senators, congressmen, generals, admirals, under-secretaries of State and Defense, and so on, who come pouring through here to ‘look for themselves.’ He forbids his people to ‘go into the hills,’ and still annoys the people of Sarkhan with his bad manners.”
“It is not for me to say […] It is for all of us. It is your country, your souls, your lives. I will do what we agree upon.” […] This was, [Finian] was sure, the first time that these men had ever been told by a white man that a big and important decision was entirely their own… and would be followed by the white man.
“Vinich had made elaborate plans before he smuggled himself into Anthkata. He had developed a thorough plan for the extermination of the Communist Farmer. And he took steps to assure that his presence in Anthkata would not be known. He had discovered ling ago that natives should do their own political work… foreigners should come in only as a last resort, and then always as quietly as possible.”
The American editor said, “Mr. Ambassador, there’s a story making the rounds that the United States is about to evict the [Sarkhanese] Air Force from land lent to them by the United States. This would mean that all their millions of dollars of building would have to go. The property is supposed to be turned over to American real estate salesmen to sell as subdivisions.
[MacWhite] recognized that he did not know enough about the Asian personality and the way it played politics. There was a strain of coldness, an element of finality, about the whole thing he had never encountered before. Politics in Asia were played for total stakes. He also recognized that he could learn from the experience of others.
“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.”
“When I was asked to read palms at the Philippine Ambassador’s dinner, it was a God-given opportunity. All of the Sarkhanese brass except the King were present. And then that knucklehead of an assistant of yours [Swift], instead of helping me, started laughing at me and trying to make a fool out of me. If he had an ounce of brains, he would have noticed how serious the Sarkhanese were. And if those fools in the State Department had briefed him properly, he would have known all about palmistry and astrology before he came here.”
Mr. Atkins, […] you may not know it, but a French firm has a concession to handle the production of building materials in this country. If everyone started forming brick and quarry companies, it would ruin our relationship.
“Senator, [the Vietnamese woman] says it’s safer in the city. She says that the French will take care of her while the Communists would probably slaughter her. She says she would rather leave the Delta forever than live there under Communism,” Dr. Barre said.
What the woman had actually said was that the French and the Communists were both dogs. The Communists had cruelly slaughtered her eldest son six months before. The French, just as cruelly, had burned down her hut to open a firing lane through her village.
“The Russians will win the world by their successes in a multitude of tiny battles. Many of these will be fought around conference tables in the rice fields of Asia, at village meetings, in schools; but mainly they will take place in the minds of men. Only occasionally will the battles be violent; but the sum of these tiny battles will decide whether our way of life is to perish or exists.”
The little things we do must be moral acts and they must be done in the real interest of the peoples whose friendship we need—not just in the interest of propaganda. […] To the extent that our foreign policy is humane and reasonable, it will be successful. To the extent that it is imperialistic and grandiose, it will fail.
