Book dossier

The Ugly American

by William J. Lederer, Eugene Burdick, S. Gilai

This book is a fictionally written depiction of America^s failed foreign policy, tactics and blunders in a country depicted as an area similar to Viet Nam. The journalist author was entrenched in the region for several years as the French tried, without success, to exploit the area. Shortly thereafter the U.S. stepped in and, with typical American (monkeys in a watch shop fashion) enthusiasm, started the decimation of a people and their country. The story follows an American Ambassador as he wheels and deals his way into the hearts and pockets of the local elite whilst paying little notice to the pulse of a disgruntled rural populace allowing the Soviets to step in and sew the seeds of war.