When the Civil War spread to Nanking, Thomson and an American friend covered four or five thousand miles traveling around China "by every conveyance known to man."
"That year," Thomson said, "got me refocused on East Asian matters. I came back with a desire to get rooted in U.S.-East Asian relations, and to begin to work on the China problem."
Thomson's four years at Yale were mostly spent at the Yale Daily News, which he edited as a senior. "The chairman controlled editorial policy," Thomson said with a smile, "so although most of our members were conservative Republicans, we came out eloquently for Adlai Stevenson in 1952."
Two years at Cambridge, England followed and then Thomson came to Harvard to work for his doctorate under Professor Fairbank. Before completing his thesis, however, he went to Washington to work for Chester Bowles in 1958, for whom he had previously worked during Bowles' congressional campaign. Thomson's thesis--on U.S.-China relations in the 1930's--was finished "on nights and weekends" in Washington.
From that work, Thomson said, he got interested in "how good and how bad we are in forming gradualist alternatives to underdeveloped countries." An expanded version of his thesis topic will be coming out in book form next year. Thomson is presently working on a study on "how we made policy toward East Asia in 1930's juxtaposed with how we make policy in the 60's."
"I want to juxtapose whatever elements of continuity or discontinuity caused us to do good things and bad things toward Asia," Thomson said, "and see if I can't come up with some useful suggestions for the future."
"I'm fascinated," Thomson explained, "by our idea of exporting benevolence. Before World War II, our relations were on a personal, small foundation scale. But after the war, these private groups still existed but have become very much submerged by the state. We have secularized our benevolence and put it under a strong central government with the flag totally engaged."
Thomson thinks that the best road for the future might be a playing-down of our "overseas monolithic commitment." He said that we should do in foreign affairs "what we are trying to do in domestic affairs--creating a series of small Peace-Corps-type operations."
ABOUT the future course of U.S.-East Asian relations, Thomson admits to being "not as pessimistic as I was a few months ago." He feels that America's experience in Vietnam will produce a "look-before-we-leap" attitude for future initiatives in Asia.
"There may be a tendency to over-react," he said, "but I don't think a retreat into isolationism is a real danger. I do not believe that we have no interests in Asia, and the alternative to over-investment is not total withdrawal. We have to seek a systematic withdrawal and de-militarization of our commitment, and simultaneously try to introduce Soviet and Japanese influence to mix in with our presence."
Will he return to Washington? "I don't see the yen returning for five or ten years," Thomson said, "I would like to consider my real base as academic life rather than bureaucratic life.
"And besides, I find the present generation of undergraduates infinitely more interesting and promising than the generation of politicians and bureaucrats."