William Lederer

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William Julius Lederer (born March 31, 1912) was an American author, US Naval Academy graduate in 1936, and Cold warrior. His first appointment was as the junior officer of a river gunboat on the Yangtze River.

His best selling work, 1958's The Ugly American, was one of several novels co-written with Eugene Burdick. Disillusioned with the style and substance of America's diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia, Lederer and Burdick openly sought to demonstrate their belief that American officials and civilians could make a substantial difference in Southeast Asian politics if they were willing to learn local languages, follow local customs and employ regional military tactics. However, if American policy makers continued to ignore the logic behind these lessons, Southeast Asia would fall under Soviet or Chinese Communist influence.

In A Nation of Sheep, Lederer identified intelligence failures in Asia. In "Government by Misinformation" he investiages the sources he believes lead to American foreign policy:

  • Trusted local officials.
  • Local (foreign) newspapers, magazines, books, radio broadcasts, etc.
  • Paid local informers.
  • Personal observations by U.S. officials.
  • American journalists.

Other works were intended to be light-hearted and humorous fantasies. His early work, Ensign O'Toole and Me is both.

Contents

[edit] References

A partial list of his works follows:

[edit] Eugene Burdick collaborations

  • The Ugly American, 1958 (co-author, with Eugene Burdick)
  • The Deceptive American, (co-author, with Eugene Burdick)
  • Sarkhan: a novel (co-author, with Eugene Burdick)
  • The 480, 1965 (co-author, with Eugene Burdick)

[edit] Selected works

  • The Last Cruise; the story of the sinking of the submarine, USS Cochino, 1950 (author)
  • Ensign O'Toole and Me, 1957 (author)
  • A Nation of Sheep, 1962 (author)
  • All the Ships at Sea, 1964 (author)
  • McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, 1965 (co-screenwriter)
  • Timothy's song, 1965 (author)
  • The Story of Pink Jade, 1966 (author)
  • Our Own Worst Enemy, 1968 (author)
  • The anguished American, 1968 (author)
  • I, Giorghos, 1984 (author)
  • Complete cross-country skiing and ski touring, 1977 (author)
  • Marital Choices: Forecasting, Assessing, and Improving a Relationship, 1981 (author)
  • A Happy Book of Happy Stories, 1981 (author)
  • New Complete Book of Cross Country Skiing, 1983 (author)
  • Creating a Good Relationship, 1984 (author)
  • The Mirages of Marriage, 1990 (co-author)

William Lederer rose to the rank of Navy Captain. The source for this is his own statement in Our Own Worst Enemy discussing being assigned as a Special Assistant to Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet. (pg 54, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1968).

An interesting piece of history contained in Our Own Worst Enemy is the story of a young Navy Lieutenant, Junior Grade having a chance meeting in 1940 with a Jesuit priest, Father Pierre Cogny, and his Vietnamese assistant, "Mr. Nguyen," while waiting out a Japanese bombing raid in China. Father Pierre asked William Lederer if he had a copy of the Declaration of Independence on his gunboat. He said yes, and invited the two men to accompany him back to the river boat. A copy was provided to these men. It turns out "Mr. Nguyen" later adopted an alias that he became more commonly known by, Ho Chi Minh. The Declaration of Independence for Vietnam (1945)[1] contains much of the very same language that the American Declaration of Independence contains.

[edit] External links

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