1950s America
20th century history
A01=Joshua Kurlantzick
American foreign policy
American war
American way of war
Author_Joshua Kurlantzick
Category=NH
Cold War
Cold War history
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Ideal Man
Jim Thompson
Joshua Kurlantzick
OSS officer
Product details
- ISBN 9780470086216
- Dimensions: 168 x 257mm
- Publication Date: 15 Dec 2011
- Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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How the West's greatest spy in Asia tried to stop the new American way of war—and the steep price he paid for failingJim 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
JOSHUA KURLANTZICK writes regularly about Asia for Newsweek and the New Republic . He also contributes to Mother Jones , the London Review of Books , the New York Times , Foreign Policy , the Atlantic , and Time . In 2007, Yale University Press published his book on China's soft power, Charm Offensive .
