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 THE
QUIET AMERICAN DEAFENINGLY PROCLAIMS THE FOLLY OF REGIME
CHANGE
In 1945, when Ho Chi Minh read the Vietnamese Declaration
of Independence, modeled after the American Declaration of
1776, American warplanes flying overhead dipped down to show
approval, and the Vietnamese in the square below cheered.
The United States and Ho Chi Minh's forces were then allies,
both fighting the Japanese. The situation changed drastically,
however, by 1955, the year of publication of Graham Greene's
novel The Quiet American. When the film The
Quiet American, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz,
was released in 1958, Hollywood and the United States knew
little about Vietnam, and the film was not much of a success;
Greene was furious that his anti-American message was lost
in a Hollywood still reeling from the blacklist of leftists.
A remake of the film, directed by Phillip Noyce, was ready
for release last year, but the events of 9/11 postponed the
first public screening until November 22, 2002 (by some coincidence,
the 39th anniversary of the day when President John Kennedy
was assassinated). The story is now more faithful to Greene's
message, and filmviewers are better prepared to interpret
the meaning of Greene's prophetic warning that the American
anti-Communist obsession would cause more killing yet without
defeating the determined, popular anticolonial mood of a sophisticated
enemy that could have been, similar to Yugoslavia's Marshall
Tito, a bulwark against both Chinese and Soviet communism.
The hero of the story is middle-aged Thomas Fowler (played
by Michael Caine), a British journalist, who had sent only
three dispatches to London during 1952 until events moved
quickly. Early in the film he meets thirty-two-year-old Alden
Pyle (played by Brendan Fraser), who claims to be an aid official
assigned to the American consulate in Saigon to provide medical
assistance for victims of an eye disease. Pyle
seems rather contemplative and is described as "quiet."
In time, Fowler realizes that Pyle's so-called medical aid
mission is a cover for a more sinister plot, namely, to arm
a democratic Third Force that would "save" Vietnam
from both the French and the Communists.
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Indeed, when Fowler meets Pyle, the latter is carrying a book
that contains an argument for the concept of a Third Force.
(In actuality, the CIA began to set up Ngo Dinh Diem as a
"third force" in 1954, and he was "elected"
President of South Vietnam in 1955.) As a journalist, Fowler
goes to a massacre in the North which the French blame on
the Communists, though only Vietnamese are dead, and Pyle
is strangely on the scene. Fowler also goes to interview General
Thé (played by Quang Hai), who is unable to answer
tough questions about his lack of military strength and democratic
rhetoric vis-à-vis the Communists, and Pyle is again
present. Fowler next discovers that explosives masquerading
as American medical supplies, cleared by Pyle, are being shipped
to General Thé. Soon, he observes an explosion on a
street in Saigon that kills many innocent people; there are
obvious footprints from the American supplies, especially
when Pyle shows up to speak fluent Vietnamese to stop local
police from sending victims to a hospital for treatment so
that embassy personnel can photograph the atrocity. Afterward,
Fowler reports that American aid increased, and several news
stories about the skyrocketing American military commitment
to Vietnam flash across the screen until the fateful year
1965, when the United States began to send hundreds of thousands
of young men to fight in Vietnam. In the midst of the story,
Fowler and Pyle compete for the attentions of Phuong (played
by Do Thi Hai Yen), a beautiful, aristocratic woman who was
forced to become a taxi dancer after her parents died. Pyle
is eventually murdered, we learn early in the film, but filmviewers
are not allowed to solve the crime until almost the very end.
Epigrams from the pen of Graham Greene say a lot to a Washington
that never listened, but the delayed release of The
Quiet American remake is well timed to tell
the American people what is in store for them as Iraq becomes
the next target in the continuing quest to project American
power abroad. The Political Film Society, accordingly, has
nominated The Quiet American for
best film of 2002 in raising consciousness about the need
for peace. MH
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The
Quiet American
by Graham Greene
While
the French Army in Indo-China is grappling with the
Vietminh, back in Saigon a young and high-minded American
named Pyle begins to channel economic aid to a "Third
Force."
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