An intelligent, articulate scholar, Harrison MacWhite, survives a hostile Senate confirmation hearing at the hands of conservatives to become ambassador to Sarkan, a southeast Asian country where civil war threatens a tense peace. Despite his knowledge, once he's there, MacWhite sees only a dichotomy between the U.S. and Communism. He can't accept that anti-American sentiment might be a longing for self-determination and nationalism. So, he breaks from his friend Deong, a local opposition leader, ignores a foreman's advice about slowing the building of a road, and tries to muscle ahead. What price must the country and his friends pay for him to get some sense?

Marlon Brando
as Ambassador Harrison Carter MacWhite

Eiji Okada
as Deong

Sandra Church
as Marion MacWhite

Pat Hingle
as Homer Atkins

Arthur Hill
as Grainger

Jocelyn Brando
as Emma Atkins

Reiko Sato
as Rachani, Deong's Wife

Kukrit Pramoj
as Prime Minister Kwen Sai

Judson Pratt
as Joe Bing

George Shibata
as Munsang
Wuchak
***Why the Vietnam War happened*** Based on influential 1958 American political novel, “The Ugly American” (1963) is a realistic film, a political drama/thriller featuring Marlon Brando as a new American diplomat in a Vietnam-like Southeast Asian nation that is painfully struggling between capita...