The Ugly American Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ugly American - Essay Examplepolicymakers, journalists, and officers made leading to the loss of Sarkhan to the Communists discerning that Sarkhan has border difficulty with the Communist country to the north.Lederer and Burdick The Ugly American, set in the mythical southeast Asiatic nation of Sarkhan, is a critique of U.S. foreign policy. Lederer and Burdick point to the willful ignorance, c areerist self-interest, and cultural arrogance that confound American efforts to close down the spread of communism. Their novel, essentially a series of loosely linked vignettes relating to the actions of foreign dish out officials, is meant as a counteractive to many harsh assessment. Even though liberal and unsparing in their representation of administrative incompetence and bureaucratic inertia, Lederer and Burdick appear oblivious of the use of terror by U.S. agents. They assign the failure of U.S. policy to the lack of ability to distinguish the competent deception of communists, a refusal to learn autochthonal languages and customs, a lack of enthusiasm to leave the comforts of the capital city and its American enclave, a assimilation with diplomatic social life, and an overriding anxiety with large-scale, capital-intensive projects rather than with less significant innovations more than likely to suffer the daily lives of the native population.On the other hand, communist success is attributed to the careful training of its diplomats, their enthusiasm to compliments native language and customs, and their capability to sarcastically prey upon natives mistaken resentment. Consequently, the communists are on the threshold of adult male power and domination. As one Sarkhanese states, America had its chance and it missed. And now the Communists are going to win (Neilson p. 24). Or as a fictional U.S. senator declares, were facing the final crisis with Russia . . . the next few years will answer whether were going to win or lose (p. 242). This paranoia ab out the imagined abilities of communists is seen in the imaginary timetables by which they are state to plot world domination. The Senator in The Ugly American glimpses the fate of the world being determined in the next few years Soviet agents in The Ugly American plan to bring Burma indoors the Communist orbit within 30 months (p. 35), and, according to Time, Anthony Edens military advisors estimated in 1956 that by 1961 the communists would be pretend to endeavor violent global conquest. Despite the fact that their basic thesis is that the United States needs more competent foreign service officers, Lederer and Burdick also give specific examples of policies and programs the United States strength adopt that might make a difference in the struggle against communist hegemony providing Asians with powdered milk to accustom them to sweet-flavored milk, which is alien to their diets, so they can begin raising dairy cows broadcasting surreptitiously tape-recorded conversations of R ussian field operatives telling their local agents not to talk about socialist ownership of lands because that only scares the peasants. Peasants are backward types (Neilson p. 63) constructing simple water pumps run by bicycles, without exporting technology or giving abet money, since Whenever you give a man something for nothing the first person he comes to dislike is you (p. 216) or tenet Asians to construct and use long-handled brooms (rather than the traditional