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In reply to the discussion: Can anyone get it? Most of the World hates the USA!! [View all]OldDem2012
(3,526 posts)33. A 2009 review of "The Ugly American" written in 1958....
Still Ugly After All These Years
Quote:
Published in 1958, the book is often confused with another cold-war-era novel set in Southeast Asia, The Quiet American, which appeared in 1955. Yet The Ugly American, which depicted the struggle against insurgent Communism in the fictional nation of Sarkhan, was the bigger success, spending 76 weeks on the best-seller list and selling roughly five million copies. Writing in the Book Review, the veteran correspondent Robert Trumbull called it a devastating indictment of American policy and a source of insight into the actual, day-by-day byplay of present titanic political struggle for Asia.
The novel is a series of linked sketches of real people that Lederer, a Navy captain who served as special assistant to the commander in chief of United States forces in the Pacific and Asian theater, and Burdick, a political scientist, encountered overseas during the buildup to Vietnam. The book was originally commissioned by W. W. Norton as nonfiction, but an editor suggested it might be more effective as a novel. What we have written is not just an angry dream, the authors note in the introduction, but rather the rendering of fact into fiction. Yet the books enduring resonance may say less about its literary merits than about its failure to change American attitudes. Today, as the battle for hearts and minds has shifted to the Middle East, we still cant speak Sarkhanese.
Still "ugly" after all of these years, indeed.
Quote:
Published in 1958, the book is often confused with another cold-war-era novel set in Southeast Asia, The Quiet American, which appeared in 1955. Yet The Ugly American, which depicted the struggle against insurgent Communism in the fictional nation of Sarkhan, was the bigger success, spending 76 weeks on the best-seller list and selling roughly five million copies. Writing in the Book Review, the veteran correspondent Robert Trumbull called it a devastating indictment of American policy and a source of insight into the actual, day-by-day byplay of present titanic political struggle for Asia.
The novel is a series of linked sketches of real people that Lederer, a Navy captain who served as special assistant to the commander in chief of United States forces in the Pacific and Asian theater, and Burdick, a political scientist, encountered overseas during the buildup to Vietnam. The book was originally commissioned by W. W. Norton as nonfiction, but an editor suggested it might be more effective as a novel. What we have written is not just an angry dream, the authors note in the introduction, but rather the rendering of fact into fiction. Yet the books enduring resonance may say less about its literary merits than about its failure to change American attitudes. Today, as the battle for hearts and minds has shifted to the Middle East, we still cant speak Sarkhanese.
Still "ugly" after all of these years, indeed.
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I believe any country with the US's type of domination would do exactly the same
treestar
Mar 2013
#45
You don't see much emigration from highly developed countries these days at all.
Posteritatis
Mar 2013
#75
Yeah the millions of Norwegians beating down the door to get in here is downright frightening.
Egalitarian Thug
Mar 2013
#24
Cause people want to leave countries we might bomb, safer for them here
The Straight Story
Mar 2013
#34
Demand for entry is high from Third World countries, not so much from First World countries
Lydia Leftcoast
Mar 2013
#54
name some famous leaders who think they can murder anyone just because they want to...and do nt
msongs
Mar 2013
#17
Hubris is the typical downfall of the mighty. And it's the nuts on the right who shout about how the
gtar100
Mar 2013
#23
Yes they did, because this is a discussion forum, not a personal blog. They responded on topic.
stevenleser
Mar 2013
#68
Wow. As an American living in Australia (and this is the fourth country I've lived in)
Number23
Mar 2013
#116
How about agreeing with the Canadian and being a 62 yr old US Citizen and a vet.....
OldDem2012
Mar 2013
#99
WOW! I was the one getting slammed, but it offended someone ELSE enuf to do an alert!
ConcernedCanuk
Mar 2013
#106
No, I do not think it is ok. Those 700+ military sites in more than 30 countries
bike man
Mar 2013
#94
We should strive to be more like Canada, who was wise enough to stay out of Iraq,
hughee99
Mar 2013
#73
What do I like to do? Explore remote camping spots in Northern Ontario.
ConcernedCanuk
Mar 2013
#107
Many of the people in our nation get it. However, I suspect that does not include the bigwigs in the
jwirr
Mar 2013
#108
Money and power are definitely the motives. But most of us do not have any of that money or that
jwirr
Mar 2013
#110
"most of this was done with the concent of the governed." - Not really methinks.
ConcernedCanuk
Mar 2013
#112
No I don't think you are wrong. But if you think back to 911 most of us were very willing to be
jwirr
Mar 2013
#114
that simply is not true. And nobody criticizes U.S. foreign policy more than me
Douglas Carpenter
Mar 2013
#115
From someone who's part of most of the rest of the world: We don't hate the US...
Violet_Crumble
Mar 2013
#117