ABSTRACT
One facet of the US cultural Cold War strategy in cinematic soft-power terms was to be sensitive in on-screen portrayals of nations whose alignment it wanted to win over or ensure. This paper will make the case that one manifestation of this strategy is in portrayals of Southeast Asia that obfuscate clear national designations, thereby muting or obviating the issues of contention that might arise with respect to specific nations. It will further be argued that such muddling of national designation goes hand-in-hand with a figuration of American characters and/or US influence as partially problematic but also ultimately well-intentioned and potentially beneficial. The examples analyzed are Terror is a Man (1959), The Ugly American (1963), and Operation CIA (1965).
