Origin of figurative use of 'ugly American' in the pejorative sense of 'ignorant, arrogant U.S. citizen abroad'

The expression "ugly American" evidently became famous through a novel—William J. Lederer & Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American (1958). The title character, Homer Atkins, although physically unattractive, is a capable engineer and an honest representative of U.S. interests abroad (specifically, in a fictionalized Burma), but he is appalled and frustrated by the incompetence, greed, and arrogance of other U.S. representatives. One of the ironies of the book is that the physically ugly American is among the most admirable Americans.

But as the cover of a 1999 reissue of the novel observes, the book's title "became a synonym for what was wrong with American foreign policy." And at some point, the meaning of the term expanded to cover any rude, oblivious, entitled U.S. citizen abroad, whether the person is associated with the U.S. government or not.

My question is, when did this change in the understood meaning of "ugly American" from a literal description of Homer Atkins to a figurative description of a stereotypically ignorant, abrasive, entitled U.S. citizen abroad occur?

I checked a number of dictionaries of idioms, slang, and clichés, and could not find any account of when the pejorative sense of "ugly American" emerged. An item in the Congressional Record of June 9, 1960, however suggests that it may have happened rather quickly:

Mr. [Frank] BOW [of Ohio]. Mr. Speaker, the Department of State may well be proud of Miss Frances Knight, Director of the U.S. Passport Office.

In many instances State Department personnel are subject to criticism and ridicule, many times without justification. My knowledge of them is that they are generally a very fine group of devoted public servants, dedicated Americans.

However, Miss Knight's article "Don't Be an 'Ugly American,'" inserted in the Congressional Record of June 6, 1960, is proof positive of a sincere desire to create a proper and true image of Americans abroad. As in the State Department, so among our tourists abroad, a small minority cast unfortunate shadows on the unoffending majority.

Evidently, Knight's article, which appeared originally in Parade Magazine (June 5, 1960) was an argument and a plea for U.S. tourists to express their patriotism by improving their manners and respect for the countries and people they visited while traveling abroad.

Is there any evidence that the figurative meaning of "ugly American" that Knight invokes arose even earlier than June 1960?

Solution 1:

The Ugly American

The term was used as the title of a 1948 photograph of an American tourist in Havana by the Cuban photographer Constantino Arias. Richard P. Horwitz, Ed.,The American Studies Anthology

My sense of this is of a pejorative nature and it predates the book and the congressional record entry of 1960. But I do not purport that this answers your question.

Wikipedia relates badly behaving American travelers to Twain and D. O. Stewart. ugly American - pejorative

This ngram shows even earlier use of ugly American. I reviewed the summary of each from 1800 to 1950 (only 3 pages worth). They describe ugly buildings, ugly people but nothing to suggest to me the figurative transition you seek.

There are also references to post '9/11' and the actions, primarily militarily, that earn the figurative sense. gnovis.com

“Are You An Ugly American?” This term, in its post-9/11 reemergence, created a common enemy among the actors on the international stage whom have most critically written that “it is not the American who is ugly but America which is ugly”

Solution 2:

When some forty churchwomen met in the small East Texas town of Rusk for their regular meeting at the Presbyterian church on 20 March 1959, they heard a guest speaker review one of the most discussed books of the day:

Mr. Gene Presley has been secured as guest speaker, and will review the book, "The Ugly American." This is a novel based on the life of an American ambassador to foreign countries and reflects the opinions of other people toward Americans. — The Rusk Cherokeean, 19 March 1959.

Whether they read the book or not, any American who stumbled across a newspaper review or an innocuous notice like this knew it was about an ambassador and how the world viewed Americans. In other words, there was no broadening application to the behavior of Americans abroad; in the popular imagination, that’s what the book was about.

Nancy was not the typical tourist, the "ugly American." She had come to live and to learn. — 885 (campus newspaper, Boston College), 1 Dec. 1959.

Thus, speaking of Pres. Kennedy’s Peace Corps initiative, the Birmingham (Eng.) Daily Post hopes

… that the President's initiative should do something to destroy the image of the ugly American. The American abroad has often been his country's worst ambassador. — Birmingham Daily Post, 2 March 1961. BNA (paywall)

Whether individuals or groups of Americans abroad were termed “ugly” before the book’s publication — by, one assumes, other, better behaved Americans — the book and its reception transformed the phrase into a popularly understood stereotype, even in East Texas.