The Ideal Man (eBook)

The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War

Joshua Kurlantzick (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2011
272 Seiten
Turner Publishing Company (Verlag)
978-1-118-09811-0 (ISBN)

Infos

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 todayExplores 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 inDraws on personal recollections and includes atmospheric details that bring the people, events-and the Thailand of the time-to lifeWritten by a journalist with extensive experience in Asian affairs who has spent years investigating every aspect of this story, including Thompson's tragic disappearance

Autor

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.

Inhalt

Preface vChapter 1 1Chapter 2 11Chapter 3 21Chapter 4 29Chapter 5 43Chapter 6 55Chapter 7 67Chapter 8 83Chapter 9 99Chapter 10 117Chapter 11 131Chapter 12 149Chapter 13 161Chapter 14 171Chapter 15 181Chapter 16 195Epilogue 209Acknowledgments 221Notes 225Index 255

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.10.2011
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Wirtschaft
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Regional- / Landesgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: 1950s America • 20th century history • American foreign policy • american war • American way of war • Cold War • COLD WAR HISTORY • Ideal Man • Jim Thompson • Joshua Kurlantzick • OSS officer
• ISBN-10: 1-118-09811-0 / 1118098110
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-09811-0 / 9781118098110