American Policy In Graham Greene's The Quiet American

Of crucial importance is the different attitudes between Nguyen and Quang has towards the Vietnam War. Nguyen represents the traditional view that the Vietnam War was a failure on the part of the Americans, a mistake and pointless war that ruined the lives of many. What is surprising is Quang’s view. With an immediate and loud retort to Nguyen’s negative feelings towards the Vietnam war, Seol’s portrayal of Quang immediately grabs the audience’s attention. Quang is grateful for the Vietnam war, and “thankful for the American soldiers that gave up their lives so [he] could live.” Actor Seol aptly captures the spirit and sentiments of an actual Vietnamese refugee, and in doing so provides a refreshing and different perspective about the Vietnam War. Faced with these differing perspectives, the audience must come to realize that America is not a monolith, but instead composed of people from many different backgrounds with varying experiences, attitudes, thoughts, and

In her book The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990, author Marilyn Young examines the series of political and military struggles between the United States and Vietnam, a nation that has been distinctively separated as the South and the North. Young chooses to express the daily, weekly, monthly progresses of the affairs collectively called the Vietnam Wars, focusing on the American interventions in the foreign soil. She seeks to provide an answer to a question that has haunted the world for years: What was the reason behind the United States interfering in the internal affairs of a foreign country in which it had no claims at all? Young discloses the overt as well as covert actions undertaken by the U.S. government officials regarding the foreign affairs with Vietnam and the true nature of the multifaceted objectives of each and every person that’s involved had.

For the sake of conciseness, and in order to focus the bulk of the content on the main topic, this essay will make certain assumptions. Most importantly, the essay assumes that the conflict in Vietnam was, indeed, lost by the US. It also presupposes that � due to the political climate in the US � the war itself was unavoidable. Finally, the essay takes for granted

The Vietnam war exposed a generation of Americans to the fallacy of American exceptionalism by exposing the magnitude of grievances the Government was willing to commit at the expense of Human lives. “For nine years victory wavered [in the Trojan War]” (Hamilton 261), for nearly twenty years media claims of American victory in Vietnam remained unfounded .”[Trojan] Men sickened and died so [often] that funeral pyres were burning continuously (Hamilton 261) as did their modern American counterparts.Both wars ended in part to the deviation of its constituents, anti-war movements eventually influenced Government as did the secretive actions of the few (the Trojan Horse) constrain further conflict. As, the current President continues to augment the U.S., seemingly in preparation for conflict, it is imperative that we remember from experience that swift revolutionary civil disobedience rather than reactionary civil obedience after grievances have been committed will ensure that the lives of Millions do not become

The Vietnam War is widely regarded as the lowest point in the history of U.S. foreign affairs. It mercilessly dragged an unwilling country on a fatal ride for twenty years, all while receiving low approval ratings and high funding. The Vietnam conflict served as an optimum environment for the virus of controversy. No one has more experience with controversy than Heinz Alfred Kissinger. He is the ultimate pragmatist, as embodying his philosophy of realpolitik, a diplomatic ideology based on utilitarianism rather than international ethical standards. When one’s political calling card downplays the role of ethics in diplomacy, that individual is bound to garner a high profile reputation. Kissinger himself has lamented the national predicament during this conflict—squeezed between the ultimate rock, his duty to keep peace, and hard place, his duty to act with the approval of the American people. This predicament was rooted in an omnipresent opposition to Communism, as was America’s role in the entire Cold War. Cold War politics were politics of fear. That fear drove competition, which bred a certain variety of leader – a logical, calculating politician with regard for nothing but his country’s success. To avoid an uncontrollable spread of Communism through the westernized world, some moral casualties were strewn about the wayside. However, the American public had no trouble rolling up their collective sleeves to back this forward-thinking activist. In more recent years, some

The Vietnam War lasted longer, bloodier, and more hostile than any U.S. President or American citizen imagined. Lyndon Johnson faced many other enemies during the war such as the duration, the immense number of deaths, and for the first time in most American’s history, failure. Through deep evaluation of Lyndon B. Johnson’s foreign policies as President during the Vietnam war, failure was a recurring outcome, as he faced military and political difficulties over having complete authority over political decisions made leading to the misuse of his respective power, receiving split support through torn Americans at home, and his accord to deport so many troops into combat in Vietnam.

Edited by Bernard Edelman, “Dear America” is a collection of letters written by soldiers during the Vietnam War. Their letters are written to love ones back home such as parents, siblings, and spouses but they are a great depiction of the Vietnam War. The soldiers would write these letters to help keep hope alive and to keep sane. Throughout the book the letters are categorize into those who are barely arriving into the war to those who have been there a long time. The stress and anxiety grows more and more as the letters continue and the soldiers begin to contemplate their situation. I’ve learned a lot of factual things about the Vietnam War throughout my life such as how it began and what the outcome was but reading this book was the

   Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War is a contrapuntal reading to American literature on the Vietnam War. But rather than stand in stark contrast to Tim O' Brien's The Things They Carried, The Sorrow of War is strangely similar, yet different at the same time. From a post-colonialist standpoint, one must take in account both works to get an accurate image of the war. The Sorrow of War is an excellent counterpoint because it is truthful. Tim O' Brien writes: ". . . you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil." (O' Brien, 42) Bao Ninh succeeds in this respect. And it was for this reason that the Vietnamese

In the book The Quiet American Phoung, the beautiful Vietnamese girl caught in a love triangle with an American spy and a war correspondent, is seen as a commodity, something to be bartered, without actually taking her feelings into consideration. She is treated as a delicate victim who needs saving by the men in the book but although it seems like Greene is portraying Phuong as nothing more than an object, he means for her to represent much more than that. Greene’s portrayal of Phuong as an object represents the treatment of the Vietnamese people in the hands of the Americans. She is meant to be symbolic of her country, both men, American and British want to possess her, much like the war raging in Vietnam.

In the book ‘The Quiet American’, Fowler--a british journalist--holds a more justified argument compared to Pyle, who represents the US; Fowler considers for more issues and people around him, while Pyle only follows his own thought and is not willing to hold back his idea for the good of others. Pyle, as a US aid sent to Vietnam, holds a belief to spread democracy around and give more chance to native vietnamese people. When Pyle and Fowler are arguing about what sort of government should vietnamese people have in a tower guarded by 2 vietnamese soldiers; Fowler said they do not care about the government, all they want is enough food, but Pyle strongly disagree with him ‘They’ll be forced to believe what they are told, they won’t be allowed

A quarter of a century after the Fall of Saigon, Vietnam continues to exercise a powerful hold of the American psyche. No deployment of American troops abroad is considered without the infusion of the Vietnam question. No formulation of strategic policy can be completed without weighing the possibility of Vietnanization. Even the politics of a person cannot be discussed without taking into account his opinion on the Vietnam Ware. This national obsession with Vietnam is perfectly national when viewed from a far. It was the only war that the United States has ever lost. It defined an era of American history that must rank with the depression as one of this nation’s most traumatic. It concluded with Watergate and led many to believe that the

One of the biggest strength of his insight is the application of physiological principles to international relations. Fulbright uses these to make sense of seemingly senseless actions by the United States, China and Vietnam. He expertly characterizes America as unrevolutionary, puritanical, and deeply ideological. In the same way, he includes historical context that also helps explain behaviors exhibited by those nations today. For example, he explains in detail how China’s history as a great civilization and then it’s colonization by Western powers has led to its isolationism and hostility towards the West. It is this application of history and physiology that presents a human view of the other side. It allows for a greater understanding of the complex forces influencing world relations today. This combats the dehumanization and misunderstanding between both sides of the conflict. Furthermore, many of the recommendations Fulbright made proved to be predictive. In the section “An Alternative for Vietnam”, Senator Fulbright proposes an eight-point program for the restoration of peace in Vietnam. Many of the points he listed where part of the Paris Peace Agreement of 1973. For example, there was a cease fire, the US safely withdrew its troops, and there were negotiations between the South Vietnamese government and the National liberation front which would allow for its

This influence led the Pyle to his demise, his purpose was to help the local people but instead he ended up hurting them. Pyle represented the US a badly even though he meant no harm his actions hurt many people. Harding’s books mentions a “Third Force”, which Pyle implemented with “Operation Bicyclette” along with General Thé to fight for “democracy” against the French and communist. The Operation Bicyclette was placing bombs on Vietnamese civilians bicycle and it ended up hurting many people. When Pyle gets asked if he will change his views after witnessing the harm he has cause her cynically replies no, “They were only war casualties…It was a pity, but you can’t always hit your target”(Greene, 183). Pyle came into Vietnam trying to bring American political structure into foreign country because he referred to the people who died due to the bomb as people who died for the sake of democracy

How long can you sit on the fence and not get involved? How long before you're forced to choose sides? Thomas Fowler learns the answers to this dilemma the hard way.

The Quiet American was a book originally written in 1955 by Graham Greene, inspired by the first French Indochina war in Vietnam placed during 1951 - 1954. The author adds a love triangle in the mist of war’s chaos to deepen the reader’s interest. His decision to create a fictional love story during a turbulent time in our history proved to be successful, even though, Greene insists, "This is a story and not a piece of history." Bushnell reflects Greene’s comment adding, Unfortunately, The Quiet American became a chillingly accurate foreshadower of history (Bushnell pg.38). The books success led to two movie renditions, one made in 1958 and the other 2002. The movie produced in 2002 by Philip Noyce was the popular version that brought the book to life with a bit more accuracy. What contributed to the movie’s flare was the location of the set. According to a movie review, “Location shooting in Vietnam gave the images both documentary credibility and an exotic lushness (McDonald Pg.66). Even though, there were only minimal changes that conflicted with the books presentation, the outcome was positive, and brought a fresh new aspect of interpretation to the viewer. One journalist, McDonald writes in his article, “If The Quiet American can persuade audiences that self-righteousness and naivety are no substitute for realism and intelligence, Phil Noyce 's fine film may come to be one of the more significant achievements of the twenty-first century (McDonald Pg.66).”