The story of the phenomenal success of "The Ugly American" is well known. Lederer and Burdick's novelistic indictment of American ineptitude, indifference, and self-indulgence abroad inspired President Eisenhower to form a commission charged with investigating our Foreign Service. It influenced then-Senator John F. Kennedy's later decisions to found the Peace Corps and the Green Berets. What has not been appreciated until now is the extent to which Lederer and Burdick's success rested on a carefully contrived myth surrounding the novel's genesis and composition.