What Do I Read Next?
- In Sarkhan (1965; later republished as The Deceptive American in 1977), Burdick and Lederer revisit the fictional setting of The Ugly American. The story revolves around two Americans, a businessman and a professor, striving to thwart a communist takeover of the country. Similar to The Ugly American, the authors critique the U.S. government, and the characters are portrayed with the same stark contrast as in the earlier book. However, unlike The Ugly American, Sarkhan is a suspenseful novel that culminates in an exhilarating climax.
- The Quiet American (1955), written by British author Graham Greene, is set in Saigon, Vietnam, during the final phases of the French war in Indochina in the 1950s. The "quiet American" is Alden Pyle, who works for an American aid mission in Saigon while secretly engaging in espionage and terrorism through the CIA. The novel provides insights into the early U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Greene's seemingly anti-American perspective initially made the novel unpopular in the United States, but his warnings about American policies later proved to be foresighted.
- Dennis Bloodworth's An Eye for the Dragon: Southeast Asia Observed, 1954–1970 (1970) offers a vibrant journalistic account of Southeast Asia by an experienced Far Eastern correspondent. Bloodworth aims to depict historical and contemporary events in a manner that reveals the beliefs, customs, biases, and thought patterns of Southeast Asian people. He also explores the complex love-hate relationship between these nations and the West.
- Eric F. Goldman's The Crucial Decade and After: America, 1945–1960 (1960) is a seminal work detailing the United States' domestic and international landscape in the years following World War II. Goldman illustrates how, amid extensive debate and disagreement, the U.S. continued the economic and social revolution initiated in the prior two decades. This progression was marked by the expansion of the welfare state and other policies. Additionally, Goldman discusses how the U.S. adhered to strategies formulated in the immediate postwar years for containing the Soviet Union and coexisting with it.
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