The Quiet American

Pyle arrives in Vietnam with big ambitions. He has read a series of books by York Harding, including The Role of the West and The Advance of Red China. In these books, Harding argues that the French colonial forces and the communist Viet Minh are locked in an impossible war and that the introduction of a Third Force—distinct from these two factions—is the only way to ensure an outcome that suits America’s foreign policy needs. While the American political establishment has no great affection for the European colonial powers, they fear the rise of communist forces. An American-backed Third Force would allow the European colonists to depart without the communists taking over. This conception of the situation in Vietnam is purely academic. Harding is writing from America; he is only glimpsed through dust jackets and author bios. He is a distant, detached academic, loudly advocating for a solution that will not (according to Fowler) produce the result he wants. Harding’s Third Force symbolizes the arrogance of academics who refuse to engage with the local population or culture. Harding operates in purely theoretical terms, turning the lives of tens of millions of people into an academic exercise that centers American lives rather than Vietnamese agency. Harding’s Third Force symbolizes the way academic detachment dehumanizes colonial subjects.

Pyle’s reverence for Harding and the Third Force represents his naivety. He arrives in Vietnam armed with Harding’s theories and a genuine belief that he can find a way to make the Third Force theory work. Fowler explicitly criticizes this belief. At first, he does so in a chiding and mocking fashion. Later, he is more direct and urgent. He is driven to urgency because Pyle is seduced by General Thé. To Fowler, who has lived in Vietnam and reported on the actual events of the war, Thé is nothing more than a well-armed bandit. To Pyle, he is the easiest option for a Third Force solution. Fowler wants to save Pyle’s life and prevent General Thé from gaining a footing in the war. The Third Force becomes a symbol of Pyle’s naivety, not only because of his sincere belief in Harding’s theory but because of the way that he so desperately tries to turn theory into reality. Without an understanding of Vietnam, Pyle allows himself to be taken advantage of by General Thé. Civilians are killed because of this desire to institute a Third Force solution.

After the bomb explodes and civilians die, Pyle refuses to abandon Harding’s ideas. He insists that Thé must simply have been tricked by the communists, an absurd excuse that only illustrates his lack of understanding of the relationship between the general and the Viet Minh. Pyle’s refusal to abandon Harding’s doctrine is a form of zealotry. He is willing to blame everything else rather than admit that he might be wrong. After Pyle’s death, Fowler takes one of Harding’s books from Pyle’s apartment and puts it on his shelf. With Pyle gone, Fowler feels guilty. To Fowler, Harding’s book functions as a symbolic reminder of the consequences of naïve optimism. He tried to stop and war Pyle, and he was ultimately implicated in Pyle’s assassination. While Pyle is gone, Fowler can still occasionally browse through Harding’s books and be reminded, symbolically, of the consequences of this particularly American brand of arrogant naivety. To Fowler, the Third Force becomes a symbol of tragic loss.