Jim Thompson (designer)

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This article is about the American businessman who revived the Thai silk trade. For the American pulp fiction writer see Jim Thompson (writer).

Jim Thompson (James H. W. Thompson, born March 21, 1906 in Greenville, Delaware) was an American businessman who helped revitalize Thailand's silk and textile industry in the 1950s and 1960s. He was educated at St. Paul's School and Princeton University.

Originally an architect, he volunteered for the Army for service in World War II. After serving in Europe, he was posted to Bangkok, Thailand, as a United States military intelligence officer attached to the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the CIA), when he may have been in contact with revolutionaries responsible for the 1946 death of King Rama VIII; he was also known to have contact with Pridi Phanomyong, a former Prime Minister forced into exile after a 1949 coup attempt. After leaving the service in 1946, he returned to Bangkok to live permanently; many assume that he was a non-official cover. During the Vietnam War, his closest friend was in charge of USAF operations over Laos and Thailand.

He devoted himself to reviving the hand-weaving of silk, which had been lost as a cottage industry in Thailand. Conveniently, the silk industry is centered in Khorat, which may have facilitated his intelligence work. He is also well known for the construction of a traditional complex of six Thai houses in the middle of Bangkok. Most of the parts of his teak houses were disassembled from places around Thailand. They are now a museum and are a popular tourist attraction.

Thompson disappeared after going on a walk in the Cameron Highlands in Pahang, Malaysia, on March 26, 1967. He was never found, and there are many theories for his disappearance, many of them pointing to his former days with the OSS.

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References

The Legendary American: The Remarkable Career and Strange Disappearance of Jim Thompson, by William Warren, Houghton Mifflin, 1970 ISBN 0395083028
Jim Thompson: The Unsolved Mystery', by William Warren, 1998 ISBN 9813018828

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