'The Quiet American'

The United States first deployed combat troops in 1965 to Vietnam after years of escalation that eventually led to a thoughtless and unpopular war that lasted for another 10 years.

Graham Greene saw it coming in 1955. That's when The Quiet American was published.

The book is about a savvy British journalist, Fowler, who is covering the French war in Vietnam and the idealistic young Pyle, whose position in Vietnam is not quite confirmed. The pair jostle for the love of the young Vietnamese dancer Phuong, who becomes an allegory for the country itself.

It turns out that the "quiet American" Pyle is sneaking weapons into south Vietnam to help arm the French and Vietnamese in battling the communists.

Greene himself was covering the war from 1951-54 and had an actual conversation with an American aid worker that talked about "the third force" that might provide a solution in countires like Vietnam.

The novel was hated in the United States upon its publication. Partly because it paints Americans as flagrant murderers; also, it shows Pyle as being naive and having his skirt pulled over his head by the older, wiser British reporter.

In fact, as we'd learn in 1975, 1995 and 2005, Americans were incredibly naive to think that the solution to the Vietnam situation was war and that the machine would roll into the country without any resistance.

We were a country of Pyles, quiet Americans.