THOMSON, James C(laude), Jr. 1931-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born September 14, 1931, in Princeton, NJ; died of a heart attack August 11, 2002, in Cambridge, MA. Political advisor, educator, and author. Thomson was a highly regarded expert on Asian politics who served as an advisor to presidents Kennedy and Johnson and was later curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Although he was born in New Jersey, his mother's missionary work took the family to China and Japan. He spent much of his childhood in China and attended the University of Nanking from 1948 to 1949 until the Communist revolution forced the family to return to America. Thomson earned B.A. degrees from Harvard University in 1953 and Clare College, Cambridge, in 1955. His master's degree, earned in 1959, was also from Cambridge, and he received his doctorate from Harvard in 1961. Thomson's involvement in politics began with his work for the Adlai Stevenson presidential campaign. Work as a staff member for Congressman Chester Bowles led to his post as a foreign policy advisor to Kennedy in 1960 and then for the National Security Council under President Johnson from 1964 to 1966. However, Thomson became critical of U.S. foreign policy in Asia, especially Vietnam, and left government to teach history at Harvard in 1966. While there, he was an associate at the Institute of Politics and the Fairbanks Center for East Asia Research. In 1972 he was named curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, and during his tenure strove to increase the enrollment of female, minority, and foreign students, as well as broadening the program to include photographers and editorial cartoonists. Leaving the foundation in 1984, Thomson joined Boston University, where he continued to teach history until his retirement in 1997. During his career, Thomson wrote extensively about foreign policy and Asia, receiving an Overseas Press Club Award for foreign affairs journalism for an article he wrote on Vietnam, and publishing such books as While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937 (1969) and the coauthored work Sentimental Imperialists: The American Experience in East Asia (1981).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Who's Who in American Politics, 17th edition, Marquis (New Providence, NJ), 1999.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, August 18, 2002, section 4, p. 9.

Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2002, p. B12.

New York Times, August 15, 2002, p. A21.