The Ugly American

by

Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer

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Themes and Colors
The Failure of the American Foreign Service Theme Icon
Communism vs. Capitalism Theme Icon
Grassroots Development Theme Icon
Self-Interested Philanthropy Theme Icon
Racism and Cultural Insensitivity Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ugly American, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Interested Philanthropy Theme Icon

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 constantly try to leverage developments in Southeast Asia to benefit themselves at the cost of others, suggesting that the America and France’s supposed philanthropy (charitable aid) masks their own self-interest.

Sarkhan and the other Southeast Asian nations desire their own independence and development, which makes them wary of accepting aid from larger, more powerful countries, indicating that they recognize other countries’ total self-interest. During Ambassador Louis Sears’s tenure in Sarkhan, a local newspaper publishes a comic of him leading a Sarkhanese man on a leash toward a Coca-Cola sign, indicating that many Sarkhanese people suspect America is not in their country to help them, but to make them buy American products and enrich American companies. Prince Ngong, a Sarkhanese official, tells his advisers that he is wary of accepting too much help from either America or the Soviet Union, since he knows they are both trying to leverage aid to gain control in Asia and further their own Capitalist and Communist ideologies. Prince Ngong states that what he truly desires is “Sarkhan’s independence and development,” suggesting that nations like Sarkhan do not want to be beholden to any foreign powers, but as free and autonomous as America, France, or the Soviet Union.

However, despite Sarkhan’s hopes for independence, America and France constantly undermine sustainable development initiatives to enrich themselves, confirming that their efforts are more self-interested than philanthropic. The engineer and grassroots developer Homer Atkins observes that any time the French try to offer a new innovation to a country like Vietnam, they immediately place restrictive patents on it so that French companies can collect royalties. This makes any new product or technology too expensive for most of the local population to use. This practice confirms that despite their claims of wanting to help countries like Vietnam, the French care more about enriching themselves than helping Southeast Asians. Worse yet, when Homer Atkins observes that many Vietnamese villages sit on rich mineral deposits and could be trained to make their own bricks, a French officer severely chastises him. He explains that a French company has the monopoly on all brick manufacturing in Vietnam—“If everyone started forming brick and quarry companies, it would ruin [France and Vietnam’s] relationship.” Although the idea could save money and help the Vietnamese become financially independent, France only cares about guarding its own wealth and profit-making.

Although the French exhibit the most egregiously self-interested behavior, America also exploits the countries it claims to help. In Sarkhan, the American government owns several thousand acres of flat, undeveloped land. They lease it to the Sarkhanese government to use as a training ground for their air force, and the Sarkhanese government spends several years and millions of dollars developing the land and building on it. When the property value of the entire area rises due to the Sarkhanese government’s investment and development, the American government slyly evicts them so that they can sell the now-valuable land to American real estate agents and sub-dividers. As a result, the Sarkhanese government loses years of work and millions of dollars of investment, while the Americans make a fortune without investing any of their own money. The American government thus proves itself to be as exploitative and underhanded as the French, pursuing its own wealth, even while hurting the already struggling Sarkhanese.

France and America’s exploitative actions actively impede the Southeast Asian countries’ development rather than encourage it, implying that such countries may have been better off without such foreign interference. Ironically, such financial corruption and domination inhibit competitive free markets and growth, making France and America, who preach the values of Capitalism and democracy, more domineering and controlling than even the Communists. Their blatant self-interest inhibits the growth of developing countries, suggesting that they are more colonial than philanthropic—they are more interested in subjugating and profiting off of those countries than helping them move toward independence.

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Self-Interested Philanthropy Quotes in The Ugly American

Below you will find the important quotes in The Ugly American related to the theme of Self-Interested Philanthropy.
Chapter 1 Quotes

“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.”

Related Characters: Prince Ngong (speaker), Louis Sears
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Louis Sears
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 14 Quotes

To [Tom’s] astonishment Cambodia seemed a long, long time away, and glazed over with wonderful memories. These were not so much memories of the village life, as of the generous and courteous attentions he had been given by so many Cambodians on his trip home. The anger, which in Cambodia had seemed so sure and honest a weapon, in his suite on the Liberté seemed somehow almost ridiculous.

Related Characters: Thomas Knox
Page Number: 156
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15 Quotes

“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.”

Related Characters: Edwin B. Hillandale (speaker), Gilbert MacWhite, George Swift
Page Number: 167
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Homer Atkins
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis: