The Ugly American

The Ugly American by: Eugene Burdick

The novel takes place in the 1950's during the cold war when the United Sates and the Soviet Union struggle in supremacy across the world. It takes place in Sarkhan, a country in South East Asia, that’s has a population approximately 18 to 20 million people. The government of Sarkhan is a rather shaky, communist filled world. Sarkhan tries to stay an independent country that doesn't want to be bothered. It is over powered by communism and struggles to find any type of it seems to co-exist. Louis Sears is the ambassador of Sarkhan. He assumes his post as a stopgap. Within three years in the Senate and an anticipated federal judgeship with a long tenure, he is simply filling in time gaps in a cushy job with a large entertainment budget and extravagant living conditions in a country he never heard of, and with useless people he considers "little monkeys."A hostile cartoon character of him comes out in the local newspaper and he becomes furiously upset. Sears complains about the cartoon to Prince Ngong, who is the head of the Sarkhanese government. Ngong is afraid that the U.S. loan could be in jeopardy so he ordered the newspaper to make a flattering cartoon of Sears and a editorial about him. Later on he is proven to be another "ugly american" that American's try not to be. John Colvin, an American dairy farmer is recovering in the hospital because he beaten up. Colvin was beaten up because he was trying to help out the Sarkhanese how to use milk and it by-products. He also set up a milk distribution center for them outside of the city's capitol Haidho. He was betrayed by his old friend, Deong who later turned communist. Deong tells a group of Sarkhanese women that Colvin tried to drug in the milk he was supplying. The drug would allow him to take advantage of the Sarkhanese women almost like today's common "date rape drug." Colvin tried to deny he didn't drug the milk, but the Sarkhanese women didn't believe him and beat him. He was left unconscious on the steps of the U.S. Embassy.

Father Finian is a catholic priest from Boston who was assigned to Burma. He is a fierce anti-communist. He recruits nine local Catholics who also want to fight against communism. They publish small newspaper that is anti-communist, then trick a Russian expert by secretly recording and then broadcasting disparaging things he said about the local peasants. It then becomes clear to the peasants and local people realize that the Russian do not have him at their best interest at heart.

That Russian is Russian ambassador Louis Krupitzyn. He is a thorough professional whose two year training period has included instruction in the language and the customs of the nation he has been to serve in. His entire staff is fluent in Sarkhanese and in the culture nuances which distinguish the Sarkhanese people. The Soviet ambassador molds himself into this pattern of the ideal Sarkhan. He diets, losing forty pounds, he studies ballet, reads Sarkhanese literature and drama, and becomes a skillful nose flute player; all as a prelude to effective diplomacy. Equipped with his country's long-range political goals for Sarkhan and a clear strategy, the ambassador is able to take actions designed to promote the communist interest in Sarkhan in many ways, not the least of which are the small ways, which include educating the population by degrees. In addition, Krupitzyn instigates deliberate acts of espionage designed to further strengthen the communist position. For example, a Russian informer planted at an American embassy as translator supplies key information about an American rice shipment which the Russians are able to use for their own political advantage.