AWARD DATE: 1968
AWARD NAME: Best Magazine Interpretation of Foreign Affairs
AWARD RECIPIENT: James C. Thomson, Jr.
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: The Atlantic
AWARD HONORED WORK: “How Could Vietnam Happen?”
Preoccupation with the East Asian policy of the United States is almost second nature to James C. Thomson, Jr., Assistant Professor of History at Harvard since 1966. From 1961 to 1964 he was Special Assistant, successively, to Chester Bowles, Roger Hilsman, and William P. Bundy and the Department of State in Washington, and later for two years on the National Security Council staff at the White House.
His pondering on the general theme led to his writing of the Atlantic Monthly Magazine article “How Could Vietnam Happen?”, selected as the outstanding entry in the category of interpretation of foreign
affairs. It is a second consecutive year that the magazine has scored in this class.
Although born in Princeton, N.J., in 1931, Prof. Thomson went to yell University, where he received a B.A. degree in 1953. He also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Cambridge University in England, and a Ph.D. degree from Harvard.
He has been equally interested in history of modern China, and has written extensively about the subject as well as on Vietnam. His manuscript on “Americans as Reformers in Kuomintang China, 1928-37″ will be published this year by the Harvard University press.
Mr. Thomson is a member of the Association for Asian studies, Phi Beta Kappa, and an honorary scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, England.
Citation for Excellence: Stanley and Inge Hoffman, Daedalus, “The Will to Grandeur: de Gaulle as
Political Artist.”
Citation for Excellence: Michel Tatu, Interplay, “The Future of Two Foreign Policies.”