The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War
Joshua Kurlantzick
Language: English
Pages: 272
ISBN: 0470086211
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Jim Thompson landed in Thailand at the end of World War II, a former American society dilettante who became an Asian legend as a spy and silk magnate with access to Thai worlds outsiders never saw. As the Cold War reached Thailand, America had a choice: Should it, as Thompson believed, help other nations build democracies from their traditional cultures or, as his ex-OSS friend Willis Bird argued, remake the world through deception and self-serving alliances? In a story rich with insights and intrigue, this book explores a key Cold War episode that is still playing out today.
- Highlights a pivotal moment in Cold War history that set a course for American foreign policy that is still being followed today
- Explores the dynamics that put Thailand at the center of the Cold War and the fighting in neighboring Laos that escalated from sideshow to the largest covert operation America had ever engaged in
- Draws on personal recollections and includes atmospheric details that bring the people, events—and the Thailand of the time—to life
- Written by a journalist with extensive experience in Asian affairs who has spent years investigating every aspect of this story, including Thompson's tragic disappearance
and surrounded with rose gardens, and packed inside with smuggled tommy guns, bazookas, and grenades, alongside rugs made of tiger and wild bearskins.44 From inside the palace, in a reception hall with gold roses carved into the ceiling, the OSS men received secret visits from nearly every top Thai politician, including Pridi himself. “I am sure that no secret agents trying to deliver a country from oppression ever enjoyed such palatial quarters,” wrote one OSS agent.45 The OSS agents helped to
Starbucks. At night, I’d relax by watching the latest episodes of Sex in the City on cable television, and in the morning I’d catch up on the latest headlines, online, in the New York Times and the Washington Post. When I met longtime expatriates in Bangkok, they told tales from a bygone era, before the city had become so homogenized and before the world paid close attention to Southeast Asia. As the launching pad for U.S. military actions during the Vietnam War, Thailand had been transformed
trips back to his family’s estate in Delaware, Jim, unmarried and doing a job that meant little to him, seemed to be changing. Friends remembered that he would now launch into bitter monologues about the tedium of New York life. New York acquaintances noticed that the man always surrounded by friends was beginning to withdraw, turning down dates and invitations to events. He suddenly started criticizing old acquaintances for wasting their lives on parties and hunts and reading the newspapers’
never to travel alone. Hikers had been lost for days in the Cameron Highlands, though usually they were eventually found. Those signs would mean little to Jim Thompson; he didn’t usually pay much attention to signs, and he enjoyed walking by himself in northeastern Thailand, in the woods in Delaware, and on vacations. On a previous trip to the highlands, Thompson had gone hiking alone in the jungle. These walks were often the only time he had alone in months, since he spent nearly every waking
January 2007. 16. Ying Charuvan, interview by author by phone, January 2007. 17. Ibid.; Ying Charuvan, unpublished memoirs. 18. JT to Elinor Douglas, April 1, 1956, Reath collection. 19. JT to Elinor Douglas, October 30, 1956, Reath collection. 20. William Booth, interview by author, Bangkok, December 2006; Thai Silk Company, “Annual Ordinary Meeting Report, Thai Silk Company, 1958.” 21. JT to Elinor Douglas, April 23, 1955, Reath collection. 22. JT to Henry Thompson, September 2, 1955,