Eugene L. Burdick (December 12, 1918–July 26, 1965), was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of The Ugly American (1958) and Fail-Safe (1962) and author of The 480 (1965).
He was born in Sheldon, Iowa. His family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 4. He attended Stanford University and Oxford University, earning a Ph.D. in psychology. He worked at the department of political science at the University of California. In 1956 his first novel, The Ninth Wave, was published. At the close of the 1950's, he was among the first members of the Society for General Systems Research. He died of a heart attack in 1965 at the age of 46.