Study Guide

The Quiet American Part 1, Chapter 2: Section 1

By Graham Greene

Part 1, Chapter 2: Section 1

The scene returns to bar at the Continental where Pyle and Fowler first met.
Pyle asks him if he ever read York Harding.
Nope.
Pyle says he met Harding a couple times, but doesn't know him well. The writer was in Vietnam a couple years back, but not since, and Pyle would like to know from Fowler how the situation has changed since Harding's departure.
Fowler gives him a snapshot of the north and south and the status of the war. He also tells him about General Thé, who's taken to the hills to fight both the French and the Communists.
At this Pyle mentions Harding's argument that the East needs a Third Force to stabilize the region.
When Fowler has lunch with Phuong that day, Pyle has run out of his mind.