Ugly American Author , William J. Lederer

The term "ugly American" has been bandied about a lot recently and its roots can be traced to the 1958 book, The Ugly American, by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. This book, which the authors said was more fact than fiction, was the basis for the 1963 Marlon Brando film, The Ugly American. Mr. Lederer died this past week and left several books as his legacy.

Another of his books, Ensign and Toole and Me, was semi-autobiographical and was used as the basis for the Dean Jones tv series in 1962-1963 titled Ensign O'Toole. Other titles by William J. Lederer are:


Our Own Worst Enemy - an expose of war profiteering.

A Nation of Sheep - Discusses the effects of the apathy and ignorance of the American people on United States foreign policy, relations with other nations, and use of foreign aid funds.

Sarkhan - Another book that puts a small country in the middle of the struggle betweeen Communism and Democracy and the methods used by each side to claim it as its own. SH