r others to tread upon. Their death seemed to symbolized a path to safe ground. Fowler and the other characters also found a trench full of dead bodies previously in the same town, Phat Diem (51-52). These deaths and the compilation of the corpses might have represented the same thing as the bodies in the river, except that these deaths filled a void, or gap. The story isnt completely accurate historically. In a note at the beginning of the book to friends of his in Vietnam, Greene wrote ...the historical events, in at least one case have been rearranged. For example, the big bomb near the continental preceded and did not follow the bicycle bombs. He continues to say that he has noscruples about such small changes. The book was written between March 1952 and June 1955, several years before the US got involved in the war. It does however add to my understanding of events that happened in the war before US involvement.The Quiet American proved to be a great book that was both praised and criticized. For the most part, it had good critiques, however some American critics felt that it put down Americans. The Novel aroused a lot of different interpretations, and gained a lot of popularity. This in turn, opened a lot of Americans eyes to Vietnam and to the war in Indo-China. Which had not been something many people were concerned about, on account of the Cold war. The book allowed Americans to see another part of the anti-communist movement that wasnt in the spotlight....
