<b>Art imitates life: Edward G. Landsdale and the fiction of Vietnam</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascilangcult.v31i1.6435

Abstract

This article examines the adaptation of an historical person, the Air-Force officer and CIA operative named Edward G. Landsdale, as a model for fictional characters in three novels – English, American, and French – dealing with the early years of the American involvement in Vietnam. Landsdale’s political career and the historical background of his contribution to the creation of the anti-Communist state of South Vietnam is outlined, followed by an examination of his fictionalization in Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955), Eugene Burdick and William J. Lederer’s The Ugly American (1958), and Jean Lartéguy’s Yellow Fever (Eng. Transl. 1965). It is seen that Greene’s model is disputed, while all three novels actually underestimate Landsdale’s historical importance.