American Perspective; 11; The Quiet American and the Ugly American

You know, I'm frequently told that one characteristic of Americans is that we're so very self-confident. Dennis Brogan, the distinguished English voice of America, illustrates this in a little story when ex-president Jackson was being buried, a visitor asked one of his slaves if he thought the general would go to heaven. And the slave said, well, he will if he wants to. Jackson died a little over a hundred years ago. I think if he were around today, he might not be so brash. As a matter of fact, I think he'd be a little worried about being ugly. Certainly, we do have an ugly coat. There is a thing called the ugly syndrome. Maybe for some of us, it's replaced the Walter Mitty syndrome. I'd like to talk for a while about where it got started.

I think it probably got started in March 1956 when the Viking press published a new novel by the English writer Graham Greene, the name of the novel, The Quiet American. Now, Mr. Greene has written a number of books which he calls, Entertainment. Orion expressed the third man this gun for hire and more recently our man in Havana. As you know, these books have all been popular successes. Most of them have been made into movies with such stars as Alec Guinness, Orson Wells, and Trevor Howard. But Mr. Greene is also considered one of the greatest novelists now writing in English, the author of such accounts of men's struggle with his moral universe as Brighton Rock or Power in the Glory, Hard of the Matter, in the end of the affair. Now, these books Mr. Greene presents to the public as novels, not entertainments, to indicate their essentially greater seriousness.

Greene published The Quiet American is a novel. It must be considered, therefore, not as a pot boiler, but as the reason statement of a man who is almost universally acknowledged to be great. This, of course, doesn't mean that he is universally acknowledged to be right. But the theme of The Quiet American is anti-Americanism. The scene is Indo-China during the French colonial struggle from 1946 to 1954. Principal character is really Thomas Fowler, the narrator, an English journalist in his early 40s, separated from his wife, but not divorced, and he prides himself on being uninvolved. He's not on ga jé with the struggle between the Kremlin and the United States for the uncommitted areas of the world. A character of the title, however, is Alden Pyle, age 32, a bachelor, a graduate in bar

eastern studies from some great American university on the east coast, and a member of the American Economic Aid Mission in Indo-China. Pyle, as I said long ago in the first program of this series, is the principal stick with which Mr. Greene beats the United States. Well, what's Pyle like? He's an innocent. He's a dangerous innocent. I've taken some quotes at random here. These are all about Pyle. An unmistakably young and unused face flung at us like a dart with his gangly legs and his crew cut in his wide-campus gaze. He seemed incapable of harm. My first instinct was to protect him. It never occurred to me that there was a greater need to protect myself. Innocence always mutely asks for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it. Innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell wandering the world,

meaning no harm. I could imagine his soft dogs eyes in the dark. They ought to have called him phyto, not aldin. He'll always be innocent. You can't blame the innocent. They are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity and so on. Fowler, the narrator, finally arranges to have aldin murdered because he is convinced that what he is doing can cause nothing but harm in the Far East. I must say, as I suggested long ago, that given green facts, given his plot, you almost have to agree with him. The idea is that aldin Pyle and thousands of Americans like him are supposedly loose with millions of dollars in the world for foreign aid with nothing but their innocence and ignorance to protect them and as to result the free world crumbles under our innocent and destructive tread. Now, this is apparently a

very engaging idea, including to many, including Americans and American writers. The quiet American was a critical and popular success in the United States and a great American war hero. Audi Murphy played Aldin Pyle in the not really very successful movie. So, for a number of years, we have had this quiet and innocent American abroad and since October the 6th, 1958, he's not only been quiet, he's been ugly. In 1958, Norton published The Ugly American by two Americans, Eugene Bertieck and Eugene J. Letter, clearly adapting their title from the quiet American. Bertieck is an associate professor of political science at the University of California and the author of the ninth wave, which was a very popular account of political and sexual mores in California. Letter is now the far eastern correspondent of Reader's Digest, but he was until very recently a captain in

the United States Navy and he has written two comic novels about the Navy, all the ships at sea, an incidental tool in me. The Ugly American has been on the bestseller list since the day it came out in the fall of 58 and it is about to be made into a movie starring Marlon Brando as a distinguished career diplomat who will resign when the State Department insists on building a large and Brando thinks largely unneeded road in a mythical nation called Sarkhan. Sarkhan sounds very much like South Vietnam. The script among other things has a beautiful Eurasian mistress for Brando and a group of Chinese servants put tape recorders in the American embassy and then send all the secrets off to the communist. Senator Fulbright is called the whole thing fake and in many ways shameful. Bernie has called Senator Fulbright foolish. Well what's the book like? I'm sure many many of you have already read it. It consists of twenty or less short stories intended to show that we are

losing the battle to retain the far east for democracy. There are bad guys and there are good guys but most of the Americans are bad guys. The Ugly American of the title, strangely enough, considering what the title has come to mean is Homer Atkins, one of the few good guys. From the very first the term Ugly American has men in the American mind or in the public mind in general, the American incompetent abroad. An early reviewer for the British New Statesman and nation even even wrote his review under the assumption that that's what Bernie can letter or thought. The authors recently updated the book in an article in Life magazine about some of our more skilled, our more able representatives abroad and the title of the article was some non- Ugly Americans. In other words, the myth has overtaken the fact. In any event, the phrase in the book

have certainly made a terrific impact. It was the most discussed book in the last session of Congress. The sales have been terrific. The reaction has been, I suppose one could say mixed. JP Markwin thinks it's indispensable. Ernest Kay Lindley thinks it's preposterous. My own opinion is that in concentrating almost all their American incompetence abroad in one country, Bernie can letter or will seem to some people to have piled it on a little maybe. Suppose we apply the same method, the method of the book to the racial crisis in the south. Now we might get something like this. This scene will be little rock. The governor will be Earl Fabbos, but suppose we make Earl Long the chief of police, Herman Talmage the governor, or the mayor, Almond of Virginia, the superintendent of schools, and John Kasper in the district attorney.

We will then discuss in this whatever we write and in little rock, not only the school problem, but we will bring in the lunchroom crisis, the golf club and swimming pool crisis, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the Tallahassee student walkout. That is, we'll get it all together. But I suspect that Berder and Berder want action and not some literary prize. What do they think is really wrong with the way we are running our establishments in 60 or so countries of the world? Now the authors have a factual epilogue to the book which specifies some of these things. I shall pick some of these things out and discuss them. I shall pick the ones I hope I know a little something about and discuss them. I will by no means discuss them all. The authors think that America suffers severely from making political appointments to diplomatic posts. That Americans living in American compounds abroad make it impossible for our representatives

to have any meaningful contact with the native population. Three, that the linguistic ignorance of our diplomatic representatives drains our foreign service of much of its vigor. Four, that the United States does not realize the value of small aid projects, the kind that involves some kind of people to people exchange as opposed to the really large projects such as dams and military roads. This is a key thing in the movie, of course, which serve only according to the authors to alienate populations rather than to endear them to us. And finally that the Russians specialize in small projects, do them for nothing, and never make any mistakes. Or suppose I talk about these things for a while. What about political appointments to diplomatic posts? Now certainly it can be no news to any American that top ambassadorial posts in our foreign service are used as a way of paying political debts. Perhaps not just to any old political

creditor, but nevertheless to someone who has supported the winning party in the last election and can continue to support himself in whatever embassy he may be sent to. For instance, in 1952, Henry Luce of Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and so on was a strong supporter of Eisenhower. After the election he was offered the embassy in Rome, he didn't want it. His wife did, she got it. And I doubt very much if John Hay Whitney is in London today because of a long professional diplomatic career. And so on, it is true that the big posts go to non-professionals. Now sometimes, of course, obviously the very qualities that make these men successful in private life carry over into their new jobs. I mean there is no reason why this should not operate to a certain extent. On the other hand, I read the other day at an article by Charles W. Thayer in Harper's about a president of a large company with a point ambassador called a meeting of the board of directors and probably

announced that he had been appointed ambassador to Czechoslovia. And sometimes, right now, for instance, only five of 14 important ambassadorial posts in European posts are held by professionals. The authors make a point of this. Louis Sears, the U.S. ambassador to Sarkon at the beginning of the book, is a recently defeated senator and quote, a political war horse comfortably stable by his party while he awaits a judge ship. Now I have been told, I don't know this, but I have been told that this character really is drawn from life and he's a federal judge today. I mean it's pretty hard to fault the authors on this point. On the other hand, in a recent column in Newsweek, Ernest Kay Lindley writes that with two exceptions today, every ambassador in Asia is a career officer and that, furthermore, one of these exceptions is in India where Ellsworth Bunker is the ambassador

and he's considered a very able semi-pro. This is not to say that the point is not an excellent one. It is, I think, to say that some people would think this argument might have had more punch five years ago than it does today. Secondly, is the discussion of American clan living abroad. Now to stretch a point, Marie McIntosh is a character in the ugly American. She was 28 years old, she was drab and she knew it. She got an overseas assignment to Sarkon and a month after she got there, she wrote a letter home. She writes this to her ex-room mates. Trip to Hydo was wonderful. I flew first class all the way. The real deluxe treatment, all paid for. It was great. I'll skip part of it. Well, girls, there was a show for driven car waiting for me at the airport, along with the reception committee. I didn't have to go

through customs or anything. When I asked about my luggage, Mr. Preston, the man who came to meet me said, never mind, Tanki will look after it. Tanki is a Sarkonese who works for the embassy here. And they're built in servants. Honest, we have three servants to look after us. It's a family of them, father, mother, and a 14-year-old girl. They do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, everything. Oh, how they baby us. When they wake me up in the morning, they bring me a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. This is real living. The Americans here are very friendly. They all give parties and plenty of them. There's at least one cocktail party or dinner every night. It's easy to do, of course, because everyone has health. All I have to do is check with my housemates to see if he's okay and then call the servant. I say we're having ten for dinner next Tuesday. Can you handle it? Yes, mom, she says, and that's all there is to it. There are only about a thousand Americans here and we stick together. That means that we girls get asked to everything. I've been to the ambassador's party several times and to lots of dinners at the military assistance and advisory group

and the USIS and the ECA. Well, it's time to go to the office now. I see my car is waiting out front. You know, Bertie can let her go on in their factual epilogue, give some more evidence of this kind of thing. That is, they say that in Thailand, for instance, there is a special phrase to describe this kind of ingrown American life abroad. It is described as S-I-G-G, social incest in the golden ghetto. Well, I think it is, I know it is true that suburbia USA now extends clear around the world. About 1% of the population of the United States now lives abroad, not all of it willingly. I got that statistic from a new book on this subject called The Art of Overseasmanship. The American compounds in Japan, Germany, Arabia and so forth

even have American names, Washington Heights in Japan, Jefferson Heights, Patrick Henry Village in Germany, Westchester on the Rhine. At the Arabian oil company installation in Daughter on Arabia where there are bowling alleys, pool rooms and air condition homes for 900 families, even the grass was imported from the United States. Not to seed the grass. American commissaries, PXs, officers, clubs and just plain bars keep Americans plump, tight and antiseptic. There's no doubt about that. Recently, Bertie has even gone further. He says that one real trouble with all his careful paternalism, one real trouble with these PXs, one real trouble with these commissaries is that much of this stuff gets into the black market and really does more harm than good. And I must say one has to agree with this kind of thing. I saw an article in the San Francisco

Examiner the other day for United States Information Agency jobs overseas. The first paragraph of which reads, swimming in the South seas, skiing in Switzerland, two glorious weeks on the French Riviera or a safari in Africa. Later on in the article, the formal requirements for a secretarial job are listed in the salary is given $3,730 a year plus a living allowance. But there's no word at all of the real struggle for the mind of the world in which these people are supposed to engage. And a matter of fact, there's a picture here and it's a picture of a Mrs. Margaret Wilde who's doing the recruiting and the cut line reads calling all girls a life of travel and glamour beckons. It all sounds like a direct quote from the ugly American.

On the other hand, it seems to me that one has to say something. Perhaps this blunt statement about American living in compounds abroad needs to be modified just a little. I mean at least according to some authorities it needs to be modified a little. You know that the idea that American compound living abroad is good is based upon the idea that maximum personal contact is desirable. And of course, sometimes maximum personal contact is not desirable. I know some Americans, as a matter of fact, I myself have occasionally been overwhelmed by a foreign environment and people sometimes stay overwhelmed. The compound, the American compound, enables many people to be productive within the area of their competence. And besides, according to Dr. Mortren Torre, a psychiatrist with the United Nations, a bit he's busy, there is still another

consideration and he writes, maximum personal contact does not always give a true picture of the American way of life. Differences in standard of living create serious public relation problems, especially at lower level jobs, secretaries, file clerks and messengers, members of the lower middle class with the education and ideals of this class. But who in a foreign country have the housing, cars and income of the local upper class? Since in most countries, wealth coincides roughly with social status. Such Americans are patronized and entertained by the upper class and expected to function at an upper class level. But since such persons have not functioned at this level in the United States, they are inadequate and leave a distorted picture, a distorted picture, of American wealth and social patterns. Now, I don't know whether I agree with all of this, but I think one really should make the point that this compound living is not done just to be

perverse. Now another thing that has to do with the linguistic ignorance of Americans abroad, letter and birdie can emphasize the well-known fact that our foreign service officers are generally deficient in knowledge of foreign languages. They quote James Reston of the New York Times, they wrote, quote his figures, that 50 percent of the entire foreign service officers core do not have a speaking knowledge of any foreign language. 70 percent of the new men coming into the foreign service are in the same state. These figures, very good deal, the modern language association figure for this business of new people coming in is not 70, but 42.7. Of course, these figures represent those who can speak no foreign language at all. I mean, not even a language of Western Europe, much less any of the exotic languages of the far east of the Pacific. Letter and birdie quote the late John Foster Dulles on the use of interpreters.

Interpreters are no substitute. It is not possible to understand what is in the minds of other people without understanding their language, and without understanding their language, it is impossible to be sure that they understand what is in our minds. Now this is certainly an enlightened remark. It reflects the conclusions of modern linguistic anthropological scholarship, and it is, I think, true. Our capacity for knowing, our way of cognition, our conception of the world is ultimately controlled by our language. And so I should think that in view of this, as letter and birdie say, it is unfortunate that our ambassadors to France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Turkey do not speak the native tongue. That in the nine nations of the Arab world, only two have language qualifications. And that in Japan, Korea,

Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and elsewhere, our ambassadors must speak, however they have to speak to, through interpreters. And of course, of the million or so service men abroad, only a small handful have any knowledge of a foreign language. Now, letter and birdie consist that all this is not true among the Russians. Louis Kruppitsen, Ambassador Lucky Sears opposite number in Sarkin, not only Red Rote and spoke Sarkinese, but so did his wife. Birdie says, I mean birdie and letters, say, that nine out of ten Russians speak, read and write the language before they arrive on station, and that the entire functioning staff of Russian embassies in Asia is Russian, and all the Russians, the officials, Stenographic help, telephone operators, and so on, speak the language of the country to which they are assigned. Now, I am not able to argue about this, but I have, or even comment on it, any length, but you could get an argument from lots of people, I read an article paper the other day that said that this, this is a,

well, at best, a very strong statement of the situation. Thus, both in the text and in the factual epilogue, letter and birdie emphasize that American representatives abroad lose much of their effectiveness because of the language handicap, that this is not so with the Russians, and finally, that all this is doubly unfortunate, since the, unfortunate, since the key to the thoughts of another nation is in their language, and by implication, there is only one key. Well, on goodness knows one can turn up some pretty disquieting figures, 10 million. I think it's 10 million. Yes, 10 million Russians are studying English. 8,000 Americans know any Russian. It was frequently said that we Americans don't have much skill at speaking a foreign language. I don't think this is true. I think what is really true is that, well, it's not necessary for the average American to speak more than one language in the natural course of his everyday business, whereas in many countries, it's absolutely necessary,

sometimes to speak as many as foreign languages, if you're going to get along. Evans knows there's plenty of evidence of linguistic ignorance among Americans. I don't know that there is any of linguistic stupidity. The truth is, I think that the pedagogical system is perhaps a little at fault. The American pedagogical system tries to keep from allowing a student young or old to make a fool of himself out loud if it is possible. The truth of matter is that English is the most important language in the world, but there's no argument, of course, against the point that letter and verdict may. Another thing that letter and verdict emphasize is the vastly greater importance of small projects over large projects in foreign aid, the prime illustrations of the importance of this are Thomas Elmer Knox and Iowa chicken expert who did great good in Thailand and Homer Atkins, the ugly American of the title, who taught the sarcanese how to lift water from the patties to the hills.

Well, you can get a lot of argument. There's been a lot of argument printed about this point. In a recent article in Harper's, Thomas Wilson says that these conclusions are not just not justified. He gives some evidence from Lebanon and from Iran and from a number of other countries in the world. He indicates, perhaps, there are more small projects than letter and verdict, indicate, and as a matter of fact, in the recent article in life, the entire emphasis is upon the number of small projects which are being carried on by Americans abroad. Just as a sample, American aid in Laos will, within the next few months, have created 10 times more Laosian physicians than did the French colonial aid in 60 years. Well, one could discuss a number of other items. There is the question of whether or not Russia has concentrated entirely on small projects and whether she has been entirely successful in whatever projects she has dealt with.

I think there is a good deal. It is true in what Green says in the quiet American. I think that there's a good deal. It's true in what Bertie can letter or say. I don't think there are any final truths here. I think the important thing is that some discussion has been turned up and this gives us another American perspective. This is NET, National Educational Television. This is NET, National Educational Television.