The Ugly American

Probably the opposite of how I felt when I worked in a bookstore when "Stupid White Men" was published. 

It was funny. Men (mostly white guys) would come in, shuffle their feet, not make eye contact and ask me, "Um, do you have, um, Michael Moore's latest book?" (the last part was mumbled and spoken quickly)

And I would say, a bit louder than necessary, and enunciating perfectly "Oh you mean Stupid White Men? Yes we have some copies of Stupid White Men here on this display, and there's some more copies of Stupid White Men over here. I read it, and Stupid White Men is a really good book."

Basically saying the title as many times as possible. Tee hee.  

Now see here Maysie, on behalf of stupid white men everywhere, I ....oh never mind, I see Spector got here first.

Not to be too much of a wet blanket (sorry), but [i]The Ugly American[/i] had among its morals that US imperialism was fine, but needed to be conducted more intelligently. It made a character based on the spy Edward Lansdale a hero of "cultural sensitivity" and was a bible for much of the 1960s counter-insurgency warfare carried out by the US in Asia. 

Now, [i]The Quiet American[/i], there was a critique of the whole US presence. Much better written than the turgid [i]Ugly[/i] too.

The movies The Ugly American, along with The Battle of Algiers, show the arrogance and ethnocentrism (chauvenism) of American and European culture that got the U.S. into the Vietnam War and explains why the U.S. made the mistakes it did in Vietnam.

The Battle of Algiers explains why the French went from the French Indo China (Vietnam) War (1945 - 1954) right into the Algerian War (1954 - 1962).

These two movies also explain the arrogance and ethnocentrism of the U.S., Europe and CANADA when it came to getting involved in today's wars of Iraq and Afghanistan (or both, in many cases). Seems like these countries have either forgotten or ignored history.

The last time Canada got involved in a colonial (imperialist) war was the Boer War. But that's no excuse as there is something called vicarious learning - learning from others' mistakes. 

Frmrsldr wrote:

The last time Canada got involved in a colonial (imperialist) war was the Boer War.

By "last time" you mean "last time before Afghanistan and Korea"?

By "got involved" you mean "sent significant numbers of troops"? Because we were "involved" in Vietnam and Iraq, among other adventures. 

Yes "sent significant numbers of troops" does exclude Canadian officers in Iraq and mercenaries in Vietnam. People involved in these wars were/are not officially recognized by the Canadian government.

Korea was an imperial war (U.S.S.R. and allies vs U.S.A. and allies) but not a colonial war. We were not there to continue or replace Korea's Japanese colonial administration: Unlike the wars of independence in Africa and Asia in the 50s, 60s and 70s where the colonial powers desperately tried to cling onto their colonial possessions.

Of course, there's more to it than this, but this was one aspect of the Vietnam War. The U.S. first propped up the French administration in Indo China, then the U.S. more and more directly got involved in the war.