History Literature / TheUglyAmerican

* {{Ambadassador}}: Louis Krupitzyn, the Soviet Ambassador to Sarkhan, makes great and concerted efforts to learn and blend into Sarkhanese culture, speak and understand its language fluently, and manages to endear himself and his regime to many locals, at least initially.

* Ambadassador: Louis Krupitzyn, the Soviet Ambassador to Sarkhan, makes great and concerted efforts to learn and blend into Sarkhanese culture, speak and understand its language fluently, and manages to endear himself and his regime to many locals, at least initially.

* {{Expy}}: These exist of several real people since the novel satirises American foreign policy in Cold War Southeast Asia. Colonel [[PunnyName Hillandale]], for one, is purportedly based on real-life CIA officer Gen. Edward Lansdale.

* BilingualBackfire: American diplomats hire natives of the fictional war-torn Southeast Asian country to work as servants in their embassy. A visiting Chinese diplomat discovers and explains that [[GenreSavvy at least some of the servants are spies pretending not to understand English]].

* WaterSourceTampering: Accused of American John Colvin, but with milk. He tries setting up a facility to process and distribute powdered milk for the benefit of Sarkhanese locals, but is later betrayed by his former friend Deong—who accuses him of adulterating the milk with aphrodisiacs to take advantage of local women.

* FigureItOutYourself: Atkins uses this as his rationale for co-developing the water pump with Jeepo instead of doing all the work himself.

* [[HolidayInCambodia Holiday in Sarkhan]]: And in the actual Cambodia, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

* AssInAmbassador: Lou Sears, US Ambassador to Sarkhan. He makes no effort to learn the Sarkhanese language and shuts off himself and his office from local society, insists on entertaining only the expatriate crowd, and prefers to live comfortably like a colonial official.
* BananaRepublic: Sarkhan, and to varying degrees, the rest of the Southeast Asian countries surrounding it. The extremely pro-American Philippines deserves special mention as even it features in one chapter, with vaguely Latin-like dignitaries flaunting Hispanic titles (e.g. "Don") and surnames to boot.

* OneSteveLimit: The two ambassadors on opposite sides of the Cold War are both named Louis (Sears on the American side, Krupitzyn on the Soviet side). Whether the authors' intent or not, this might serve to highlight them as {{Foil}}s by showing just how different their approaches are to diplomacy.

** A particular case in Col. Hillandale in the Philippines, who goes to Filipino parties and was dubbed "The Ragtime Kid" by the locals. (This isn't as much of an effort as it might seem, as the Filipinos have already been considerably Americanised prior to the setting of the novel—thanks to a half-century of American occupation.)

* {{Eagleland:}} Perhaps the entire point of the book is to explore both flavors and how they each affect American perceptions in Southeast Asia. Unsurprisingly, most of the protagonists are flavor 1's, while the bumbling, ineffective diplomats are flavor 2's.

* Eagleland: Perhaps the entire point of the book is to explore both flavors and how they each affect American perceptions in Southeast Asia. Unsurprisingly, most of the protagonists are flavor 1's, while the bumbling, ineffective diplomats are flavor 2's.

* BananaRepublic: Sarkhan, and to varying degrees, the rest of the Southeast Asian countries surrounding it. The extremely pro-American Philippines deserves special mention as even it features in one chapter, with vaguely Latin-like dignitaries flaunting Spanish honorifics and surnames to boot.

* EagleLand: Perhaps the entire point of the book is to explore both flavors and how they each affect American perceptions in Southeast Asia. Unsurprisingly, most of the protagonists are flavor 1's, while the bumbling, ineffective diplomats are flavor 2's.

** A particular case in Col. Hillandale in the Philippines, who goes to Filipino parties and was dubbed "The Ragtime Kid" by the locals. (Although it's not so much of an effort here, as the Filipinos have already been considerably Americanised prior to the setting of the novel—thanks to a half-century of American occupation.)

** On a country-wide scale, Sarkhan itself; culturally it most closely resembles Burma or Thailand, but geopolitically it was intended to be a stand-in for Vietnam.

* DirtyCommies: The whole reason for the American presence in Sarkhan in the first place. This is UsefulNotes/TheColdWar after all.

* DirtyCommies: The whole reason for the American presence in Sarkhan in the first place. This is TheColdWar after all.

** On a country-wide example, Sarkhan itself; culturally it most closely resembles Burma or Thailand, but geopolitically it was intended to be a stand-in for Vietnam.

** On a country-wide example, Sarkhan itself is a cultural and historical mishmash of Burma, Thailand and Vietnam.

* {{Expy}}: These exist of several real people since the novel satirises American foreign policy in Cold War Southeast Asia. Colonel [[PunnyName Hillandale]], for one, is purportedly based on real-life CIA officer Gen. Edward Lansdale.

* BananaRepublic: Sarkhan, and to varying degrees, the rest of the Southeast Asian countries surrounding it. The extremely pro-American Philippines deserves special mention as even it features in one chapter.

* EagleLand: Perhaps the entire point of the book is to explore both flavors and how they each affect American perceptions in Southeast Asia. Unsurprisingly, most of the protagonists are flavor 1's, while the bumbling, ineffective diplomats are flavor 2's.

''The Ugly American'' is a political novel written by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer in 1958. The book narrates the life of various fictitious political figures and their lives within the fictional Asian country of Sarkhan.