Suspect American defenders evacuated grudgingly (5)
I believe the answer is:
dodgy
'suspect' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american defenders evacuated grudgingly' is the wordplay.
'american defenders' becomes 'dod' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'evacuated' suggests removing the centre (internal letters are evacuated from the word).
'grudgingly' with its centre taken out is 'gy'.
'dod'+'gy'='DODGY'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dodgy that I've seen before include "Of doubtful quality or legality" , "Suspect" , "Dishonestly obtained" , "Iffy" , "Not reliable; dangerous" .)