The Ugly American

William J. Lederer

The multi-million-copy bestseller that coined the phrase for tragic American blunders abroad. First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing expos of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. Based on fact, the book's eye-opening stories and sketches drew a devastating picture of how the United States was losing the struggle with Communism in Asia. Combining gripping storytelling with an urgent call to action, the book prompted President Eisenhower to launch a study of our military aid program that led the way to much-needed reform.

The Ugly American is on the Marines list.

  • mariyta read this book about 1 year ago but did not comment on it.
  • Tom Copeland read this book about 1 year ago and commented:

    I expected to dislike this book just from its title - I thought it'd be all about how bad Americans are, etc. To the contrary, it weaves together a bunch of vignettes about several different Americans and their actions in and around a fictional eastern country. The scenarios and characters are reasonably believable, although the truly ugly Americans might be a little overdone. Definitely a classic about the difficulties of spreading democracy and fighting totalitarian ideologies - those tasks are hard enough without shooting outselves in the foot.

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