Pyle believes that the death of Vietnamese civilians is necessary to further the cause of 'democracy,' but Fowler is disgusted by Pyle's overly simplified point of view. Their love triangle has many twists and turns, but the climax of the novel occurs when Fowler finds out that Pyle is involved in deadly espionage with the hopes of establishing the guerrilla General Thé as an American-backed Third Force in the war. Pyle decides that he wants to woo Phuong away from Fowler, who cannot marry her because he has a wife at home in London.

Soon after Pyle's arrival in Saigon, he falls in love with Phuong, Fowler's Vietnamese lover. From there, the novel goes into a series of flashbacks that illustrate the erratic history between Pyle and Fowler. Vigot, a French policeman, initially suspects Fowler in Pyle's demise, but he adamantly denies the charge. The novel begins with Pyle's death, but the circumstances of his murder are unknown until the novel's final chapter. Fowler frequently disagrees with a young American named Alden Pyle, who works for the Economic Aid Mission. He refuses to engage in the conflict or to form opinions - he instead prefers to simply report the facts.

The novel is narrated by the protagonist, Thomas Fowler, a British war journalist who has been living in Saigon for an extended period of time. The story takes place in the midst of the conflict between the Viet Minh and the South Vietnamese, who are supported by the French. The Quiet American is a novel by Graham Greene that is set in Vietnam in the early 1950s.

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