The Ugly American is a political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. It was first published in 1958 and caused a tremendous political resonance, including establishing the Peace Corps by the Kennedy administration. The authors’ main goal was to criticize the deficiencies and show the US diplomatic service failures in Southeast Asia. This paper aims to provide an overview of The Ugly American and discuss four concepts from the novel relevant to today’s global strategic communications.
Book Overview
The Ugly American consists of 20 vignettes and an author’s epilogue, where Eugene Burdick and William Lederer directly appeal to American officials with a request to influence the current situation. In the afterword, the authors explain essential concepts from each of the ‘vignettes’ – short, separate stories about different characters whose narratives sometimes overlap (Lederer & Burdick, 1999). The book’s main topics include the failure of the US diplomatic mission in South Asia, sustainable development, egoistic philanthropy, and the confrontation between communism and capitalism. The book is highly convincing due to the proper usage of adequate evidence. According to the authors, they traveled across South Asia and personally met many of the book characters. The book’s characters can be roughly divided into protagonists and antagonists.
The first vignette tells the story of the head of the US diplomatic mission in Sarkhan, Louis Sears, who is harassed by newspaper cartoons. For him, the diplomatic service is just a well-paid job, an award for services to the party. Lois Sears is not the only American diplomat with such views. According to the authors, in every country in South Asia – the fictional Sarkhan and the real Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Philippines – the diplomatic corps consisted of a few thousand people who spent most of their time on cocktail parties. These people lived in luxurious mansions and had servants, including cooks, maids, and drivers (Lederer & Burdick, 1999). This state of affairs most often irritated local residents because, in their opinion, American employees fared better than the local political elite. Joe Bing, who takes over as the new head of the mission at the end of the book, George Swift, and Marie Macintosh are prominent representatives of this group.
On the other hand, the protagonist group includes Gilbert MacWhite, the new head of the Sarkhan diplomatic mission, a thoughtful and selfless diplomat who takes responsibility for his role, and Father Finian, a Catholic priest. He organizes an anti-communist guerrilla unit and lives in the jungle for three months. The protagonists are also ordinary Americans pushing the implementation of small engineering improvements – John Colvin, Thomas Knox, Homer, and Emma Atkins. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic machine does not allow taking their approach to a higher level. Examples of successful diplomats include Edwin B. Hillandale, a humble, charismatic, educated, enthusiastic traveler, and Solomon Asch, a thoughtful political strategist and brilliant negotiator.
Issues Relevant to Global Strategic Communication
In addition to criticizing the status quo, the book contains many positive examples and role models. At least three protagonists managed to act and make effective decisions according to the basic rules of ethics. These are Gilbert MacWhite, who made two mistakes, Ruth Jyoti, who gave the perfect speech in front of American journalists, and Father Finian, who organized the Burmese anti-communistic movement.
MacWhite’s Hard Decision
The ethical issue related to Gilbert MacWhite is ethical decision-making. After MacWhite finds out that his well-thought-out anti-communistic strategy failed because his servant was spying on him, he admits his “first mistake” and leaves the Sarkhan to learn from his colleagues in Vietnam. There he meets general Monet and James “Tex” Wolchek and is involved in the French anti-communistic war. However, before he leaves Sarkhan, he manages to look beyond his egoistic aspirations. Noteworthy, he follows the ethical decision guide, as presented by PRSA. This guide is also very similar to the Potter Box decision-making model (Watley, 2014). Firstly, MacWhite defines the problem – that his servant was spying on him. Then he identifies factors that may influence his decision – his ego and ambition to defeat the communists.
After analyzing these factors, he casts aside the selfish doubts of a man accustomed to trusting his old servants and accepts the factor of ambition as useful. Further, MacWhite identifies fundamental values at stake. As the head of the diplomatic mission, he must work to improve the United States’ image in the eyes of the Sarkhaneese people. He then identifies the parties affected by his decision – his servant, who has to be punished for spying. Finally, MacWhite selects the ethical principle; he chooses the ends-based focus since he is responsible for the whole diplomatic mission. Then he decides to write a letter to Washington, where he admits his mistake and travels to Vietnam to study from their experience of fighting communists. Such a balanced approach to the decision-making process is an example of decision-making for today’s global strategic communication.
Ruth Jyoti and her Excellent Speech
Ruth Jyoti is a Burmese journalist; she is editor-in-chief of one small independent newspaper. She is young, and her skin is white, but still, she is a child of her Cambodian mother, who educated her, and her American father, whom she never saw. Ruth considers herself to be Burmese and Asian and stands for the rights of Burmese people while also sharply criticizing the American diplomatic mission. She is invited to America to have a public speech at the press dinner, and she uses this opportunity to share her thoughts on the situation in Burma and South Asia.
Fitzpatrick & Bronstein (2006) emphasize that public relations professionals “serve the public interest by serving as responsible advocates for those they present” (p. 1). The authors say that “protecting and advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information is essential to serving the public interest in a democratic society” (p. 1). Since the American diplomatic mission declared that its purposes included building a democratic society in Sarkhan, criticism of the mission by Ruth Jyoti is deeply justified from an ethical point of view. Besides, concerns on the nature of the mission and Americans’ behavior indicate that Ruth Jyoti is a good journalist and public relations professional.
To be more precise, Ruth Jyoti criticizes Joe Bing, an American journalist who looks down on the local population, noticing only American diplomats and high-ranking Burmese officials who speak English. According to Ruth, all American diplomats behave similarly. They are locked in their inner circle and ignore the country’s political and economic reality. Therefore, Ruth’s sincere attitude is an outstanding example that should inspire current global strategic communication practices. Although Ruth is a journalist, not a diplomat, she has more impact on strategic communication in Burma than the whole diplomatic mission with their cocktail parties.
Father Finian’s Mission
Father Finian is not a diplomat, but, just like Ruth, he is a talented negotiator and a devoted leader. The authors of the novel mentioned in the afterword that the Catholic Church has a better understanding of global strategic communication practices than the governmental apparatus. Therefore, Father Finian’s mission in Burma deserves particular attention. During just a month spent in the country, Father Finian organized the local Burmese to oppose communist propaganda. The result of his actions was the release of the Burmese Communist Farmer newspaper, which disseminated truthful information about the intentions of the communists, their past actions, and inconsistencies in communistic ideology. The newspaper quickly became popular as it was published by Burmese farmers who understood their community’s needs and concerns.
The path that led Father Finian to this success deserves special attention. To find supporters in the fight against communism, which Finian considered pure evil, he had to live in the jungle and eat local food for a long time, which ruined his health. Nonetheless, such sacrifices were needed to ensure “bottom-up change” and keep secrecy. Father Finian utilized a means-based or deontologist’s ethical approach, developed by Kant. The means-based approach implies that to be righteous, a person must achieve just results through action, employ the proper means, and act with good intentions. According to this approach, the results do not determine whether the act is ethical, but the intention behind the act does. The deeds of Father Finian did not benefit him personally, but he proceeded since it was the right thing for society. He considered that it was his duty to act and acted following Kant’s determination of good action.
Louis Sears’ Disclosure Failure
Finally, one antagonists’ misdeed should be presented to illustrate what should not be done in today’s global strategic communication. The head of the diplomatic mission Sears made so many mistakes that the head of Russian mission Louis Krupitzyn insisted that “Pravda” criticized him bitterly, to let Sears stay in Sarkhan since he was a real prize for communists. However, Sears was sent back to the US after a scandal with the lands handed over to the Sarkhaneese military, which housed strategic facilities. These lands were allegedly bought out from the Sarkhaneese government by Americans to build a residence block.
After reporters walked into Sears’ office and asked for comment, he could not say anything but “I have nothing to comment.” Sears felt that he had outsmarted the journalists; however, he only had to publicly declare that the allegations were fictitious since it was known to most journalists. According to PRSA, disclosure is a powerful act, but it should be made promptly and sincerely, especially when following the delay, denial, or unexplained silence (PRSA Code of Ethics, 2020). Therefore, a simple act of prompt and sincere disclosure could have saved the situation and prevented the scandal’s further development.
Conclusion
Thus, the overview of The Ugly American novel was provided, and four concepts from the novel relevant to today’s global strategic communication were discussed. In particular, the decision-making principles of Gilbert MacWhite and Father Finian were analyzed. The first tended to an ends-based approach, and the latter applied means-based ethical principles. Ruth Jyoti’s advocacy was also analyzed since her devotion is a good example of the right attitude. Finally, Louis Sears’ last misdeed was presented to illustrate the importance of timely disclosure.
References
Fitzpatrick, K., & Bronstein, C. (Eds.). (2006). Ethics in public relations: Responsible advocacy. Sage Publications.
Lederer, W. J., & Burdick, E. (1999). The Ugly American. WW Norton & Company.
PRSA Code of Ethics (2020). Web.
Watley, L. D. (2014). Training in ethical judgment with a modified Potter Box. Business Ethics: A European Review, 23(1), 1-14.