“The Ugly American”, written by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, is a book that portrays and describes corruption, scandal, manipulation, and in some cases violence, with American foreign policy in Southeast Asia. There are many examples where this book can be read as a critique of American foreign policy during the 1950’s.

One of them involved Tom Knox, a consultant on poultry, who advocated for the production and import of chicken in Cambodia, which was a highly needed resource for the rural peasants in the surrounding villages. Although Knox strongly demanded that his problems be discussed more thoroughly rather than with other proposals, like dams and canals, it never came along in the end. Knox promised the Cambodian people for help, and he even planned to take action on Washington as well. But, in the midst of it all, as Knox toured several other Southeast countries and lavished in the luxuries and elegant lifestyles provided to him by other ambassadors, his proposal and help gradually diminished and as soon as he flew back to Washington he had forgotten a

They also suggested a sense of urgency and need for Americans to study basic sources of information such as Mao Zedong’s writings and Communist ideas, so that they could understand a lot more behind the ideologies of war, how it is manipulated in that certain country, and what can be done to counter it. It was said that most Americans coming into a foreign country know nothing of the current problems and strategies of war, and so they are in a lot of dangerous positions when it comes to making decisions. Furthermore, the authors said that Americans focus too much on planning and carrying out “big” projects, such as dams, highways, and irrigation canals, where they should rather focus on much smaller projects like improving chicken and pig breeding, the creation of small water pumps, papermaking plants to fight illiteracy, and the development of small industries. They also proposed a need for a small force of well-trained, well-chosen, hard-working, and dedicated professionals in a foreign country, rather than sending in thousands of other Americans who would be far less useless in contribution and help towards the co

Some topics in this essay:
Mao Zedong’s, Southeast Asia, Tom Knox, Deong Communist, Eugene Burdick, John Colvin, american foreign, foreign policy, Ugly American”, Ugly American’, american foreign policy, Brief Analysis, foreign country, cambodian people, authors americans, political leaders, people help, southeast asia, foreign countries, help towards, cambodian people help,