The Quiet American Involvement In Vietnam War

After eighty years of French colonialism, the Vietminh, a communist Vietnamese nationalist group led by Ho Chi Minh, went to war for independence in 1946. In 1954, when French colonialists withdrew from Vietnam after their defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Americans became more militarily active in Vietnam. The Vietminh regained control of Vietnam, but Western intervention prevented Vietnam from unifying which created internal issues between leaderships that caused the Vietnam to split at the 17th parallel. Supported by the North, the Vietcong, communist guerrillas, harassed the South led by Ngo Dinh Diem. The Quiet American, a novel written by Graham Greene, is set in the early 1950s, a time when French involvement in Vietnam was diminishing.

In Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s note to the Department of State Bulletin in 1950, America is urged to recognize that the “solution of the Indochina problem depends both upon the restoration of security [through the Third Force led by Diem] and upon the development of genuine nationalism” (Sponsoring). “Restoration” and “development” are words that imply a lack of stability which reveals Dean Acheson’s bias that undermines the credibility of his notes with his condescending statements to Vietnam that parallel with American arrogance in Vietnam because Americans misunderstood the situation in Vietnam. Although one may argue that America is trying to achieve a desirable solution for Vietnam through the Third Force, the means are not justified because they completely ignore the Vietnamese natives in the South, which parallels with Pyle’s actions with the Third Force in the South that ultimately harmed more than it helped. In the novel, after a bomb blows up in a parade and kills dozens of Vietnamese civilians, Fowler realizes that Pyle had scheduled the massacre. Furious, Fowler asks Pyle, “How many dead colonels justify a child’s or a trishaw driver’s death when you are building a democratic front?”

Pyle wants to “give [Vietnamese native, Phuong] a decent life”, because “[Vietnam] – smells” (Greene 133). Pyle cannot see the true beauty in Vietnam, the people. Pyle’s ignorance hints that he is a man of no morals because he calls says that Vietnam “smells”. Americans lack experience in the conflict. Raymond Fosdick, a US expert on Asian affairs sends a letter to Phillip Jessup, a US ambassador for President Truman, to convince him to definitively support a side in Vietnam because “Whether the French like it or not, independence is coming to Indochina” (Bao). This letter has a hint of doubt, but is trying to convince the reader, President Truman, to change a policy that might affect Vietnam’s future. In the novel, it is implied that Fowler will have to choose a side, but when the time comes, Fowler knows that he will support the Vietnam people. Fowler displays his noninvolvement in Vietnam when he says, “I don’t know what I’m talking politics for. They don’t interest me and I’m a reporter. I’m not engagé” (Greene 96). The repetition of “don’t” shows that Fowler is becoming defensive which parallels with his actions for the Vietnamese. Fowler’s “reporter” status makes him appear neutral in face, when he really acts for his personal interests like when he attempted to maintain a