  the ugly american is a 1958 political novel by eugene burdick and william lederer upon which a 1963 movie starring marlon brando was based. the novel became a bestseller, was influential at the time, and is still in print. the book is a quasi-roman Ã  clef; that is, it presents, in a fictionalized guise, the experience of americans in southeast asia (vietnam) and allegedly portrays several real people who are represented by pseudonyms. ==1958 novel== the novel takes place in a fictional nation called sarkhan (an imaginary country in southeast asia that somewhat resembles burma or thailand, but which is meant to allude to vietnam) and includes several real people, most of whose names have been changed. the book describes the united states's losing struggle against communismâwhat was later to be called the battle for hearts and minds in southeast asiaâbecause of innate arrogance and the failure to understand the local culture. the title is actually a double entendre, referring both to the physically unattractive hero, homer atkins, and to the ugly behavior of the american government employees. in the novel, a burmese journalist says "for some reason, the [american] people i meet in my country are not the same as the ones i knew in the united states. a mysterious change seems to come over americans when they go to a foreign land. they isolate themselves socially. they live pretentiously. they are loud and ostentatious." the "ugly american" of the book title fundamentally refers to the plain-looking engineer atkins, who lives with the local people, who comes to understand their needs, and who offers genuinely useful assistance with small-scale projects, such as the development of a simple bicycle-powered water pump. it is argued in the book that the communists were successful because they practiced tactics similar to those of atkins. according to an article published in newsweek in may, 1959, the "real" "ugly american" was identified as an [[agency for international development#usaid.27s_history|international cooperation 
1958_novels 1963_films American_novels_adapted_into_films American_political_novels Books_about_foreign_relations_of_the_United_States Cold_War_films Cold_War_novels Films_set_in_a_fictional_Asian_country Films_shot_in_Thailand Roman_A _clef_novels