DIGG THIS Fifty years on, and nothing has really changed. Oh, sure, JFK started the Peace Corps in response to the book, but that was like answering cannon with firecrackers. The principal problems with US foreign policy outlined in this work of fiction are still with us and are worse than ever. The book is a collection of vignettes held together by the story of a newly appointed ambassador to a Southeast Asian country. There is the harmonica-playing Air Force Colonel, the Catholic Missionary Priest, the Chicken Farmer, and the ugly engineer. These are the good guys each trying to … Continue reading ‘The Ugly American’ 50 Years On