he had a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence on his gunboat, and Lederer said that he did and provided them with a copy. "Mr. Nguyen" was eager to deliver the document to "Tong Van So," who later became known as Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese Communist revolutionary and statesman. The 1945 Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, written by Ho, begins by quoting from the American document. Ho went on to serve as prime minister (1946–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (i.e., North Vietnam). Our Own Worst Enemy describes how the United States supported a corrupt President Ngo Diem in South Vietnam, ignored massive black market selling of stolen U.S. military supplies, food, and foreign aid, and refused to stand up to corrupt local officials who stole donated food and supplies, took kickbacks, and bullied their own population, as Americans continued saying, "It's their country, and we Americans are only guests here." Other Lederer works were intended to be light-hearted and humorous fantasies. His early works, All the Ships at Sea (1950) and Ensign O'Toole and Me (1957) are both. A children's book, Timothy's Song, with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone, appeared in 1965. Television and film The television series Ensign O'Toole, a situation comedy which starred Dean Jones and aired on NBC from 1962 to 1963, was based on All the Ships at Sea and Ensign O'Toole and Me and depicted the misadventures of the crew of the fictional U.S. Navy destroyer USS Appleby in the early 1960s. Lederer served as technical consultant for the series. He also co-wrote the screenplay of the 1965 feature film McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force. Death Lederer died of respiratory failure on December 5, 2009, at the age of 97. Eugene Burdick collaborations The Ugly American, 1958 (co-author, with Eugene Burdick) Sarkhan: a Novel, republished under the title The Deceptive American in 1977. Selected works All the Ships at Sea, 1950 (author) The Last Cruise; the story of the sinking of the submarine, , 1950 (author) Spare-Time Article Writing for Money (1954) Ensign O'Toole and Me, 1957 (author) A Nation of Sheep, 1961 (author) McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, 1965 (co-screenwriter) Timothy's Song, 1965 (author) The Story of Pink Jade, 1966 (author) Our Own Worst Enemy, 1968 (author) The Anguished American, 1968 (author) The Mirages of Marriage, 1968 (co-author with Don D.