Eugene Burdick

A piercing expose of American incompetence and corruption in Southeast Asia, The Ugly American captivated the nation when it was first published in 1958. The book introduces readers to an unlikely hero in the titular "ugly American"-and to the ignorant politicians and arrogant ambassadors who ignore his empathetic and commonsense advice. In linked stories and vignettes set in the fictional nation of Sarkhan, William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick draw an incisive portrait of American foreign policy gone dangerously wrong-and how it might be fixed. Eerily relevant sixty years after its initial publication, The Ugly American reminds us that "today, as the battle for hearts and minds has shifted to the Middle East, we still can't speak Sarkhanese" (New York Times).

Many tens of thousands of copies of Sarkhan were in the bookstores on publication day. Suddenly it seemed to vanish. Mr. Lederer and the late Mr. Burdick were convinced that the book had been suppressed by agencies of the government, and certainly it contains much that might make such agencies unhappy. In a highly dramatic narrative, it tells of blundering by our intelligence community in Southeast Asia, of error and incompetence—as well as heroics by Americans who understood Asia. Today, brought back to life after twelve years in limbo, ironically retitled The Deceptive American, and given a new, explanatory introduction, it is still relevant. The prescience of its message has been proved by events. The drama of its people and the drive of its narrative are undiminished.

Something has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination -- Moscow. In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev." Not far away, in the War Room at the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and his aides watch with growing anxiety as the luminous blips crawl across a huge screen map. High over the Bering Strait in a large Vindicator bomber, a colonel stares in disbelief at the attack code number on his fail-safe box and wonders if it could possibly be a mistake. First published in 1962, when America was still reeling from the Cuban missle crisis, Fail-Safe reflects the apocalyptic attitude that pervaded society during the height of the Cold War, when disaster could have struck at any moment. As more countries develop nuclear capabilities and the potential for new enemies lurks on the horizon, Fail-Safe and its powerful issues continue to respond.