I recently finished Graham Greene's The Quiet American and was not sure what to expect. It's odd to do a review of a book written in 1955, but I think the political and religious environment has shifted considerably from when it was written.
In any event, I found Greene's writing to be somewhat cynical, with a good element of English contempt for Americal moralizing, but nothing directed at the titular "American" was undeserved.
It is true that a man like Alden Pyle is likely obsolete. It is doubtful that one will find Yankee New Englander so steeped in American Protestantism and patriotism at this late date. That archetype has crumbled, but the Ivy League is still producing ideological fanatics, although they are more often against their nation than for it.
Fowler – the jaded English reporter – is still out there, though fading from the scene. Most journalists are airheads who are spoon-fed stories by various governments and NGOs. Not many want to see 'the front' or want to break open the truth about whatever is happening. Mostly they want clickbait and their own million subscriber podcast. But I digress.
As to the core question, I think Graham told a truth as he understood it about the early phase of the Vietnam War. Southeast Asia was in turmoil and no one had particularly clean hands. It was all well and good to be anti-colonial, but that road ultimately led to the Killing Fields of Cambodia. Indeed, during the 1980s there was quite a lot of discussion about the ethical tradeoffs of statecraft, from The Killing Fields to The Year of Living Dangerously.
What sets The Quiet American apart is Greene's interest in the people rather than the policies. A recurring theme of his work is people struggling to find God, and that is very much in evidence here.
Like all of his work it is engaging and absorbing, a true page-turner. The description is vivid and evocative, and that makes the moral debates of the time seem fresh rather than lost to the past.
Indeed, as I remarked above, Alden Pyle as a type has passed, but one need only look at the moralizing of the Ukraine War protagonists, and their completely callous attitude to the loss of human life to see that their twisted mentality lives on.
Chateau Lloyd 
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