Vietnam: Cầu Sắt Đa Kao, Graham Greene's 'Dakow Bridge' in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), 1948

The Quiet American is an anti-war novel by British author Graham Greene, first published in United Kingdom in 1955 and in the United States in 1956. It was adapted into films in 1958 and 2002. The book draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina 1951-1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from the Ben Tre province. He was accompanied by an American aid worker who lectured him about finding a 'third force in Vietnam'.

The character Alden Pyle, identified with the 'Quiet American', is killed by communist / nationalist assassains on 'the Bridge to Dakow', and his body thrown into the waters below. The old iron bridge shown here was replaced by a new concrete structure in the 1980s.

Greene spent three years writing the novel, which foreshadowed US involvement in Vietnam long before it became publicly known. The book was the initial reason for Graham Greene being under constant surveillance by US intelligence agencies from the 1950s until his death in 1991, according to documents obtained in 2002 by The Guardian newspaper under the US Freedom of Information Act.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History

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GRAHAM GREENE IN SAIGON