In Sarkhan (1965; published as The Deceptive American in 1977) Burdick and Lederer return to the fictional landscape of The Ugly American. The novel is about the attempts of two Americans, one a businessman and the other a professor, to prevent a communist takeover of the country. As in The Ugly American, the authors are critical of the U.S. government, and the characterization exhibits the same black and white quality of the earlier novel. But unlike The Ugly American, Sarkhan is a suspense novel that builds to a thrilling climax.

The Quiet American (1955), by British novelist Graham Greene, takes place in Saigon, Vietnam, during the later stages of the French war in Indochina in the 1950s. The “quiet American” is Alden Pyle, who works for an American aid mission in Saigon but is also involved through the Central Intelligence Agency with...