James Harrison Wilson "Jim" Thompson (born 21 March 1906) was an American businessman who helped revitalise the Thai silk industry in the 1950s and 1960s. The son of a prominent Delaware family, Thompson graduated from Princeton University (1928) and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1931 to 1940, he worked as an architect in New York City designing homes for the East Coast rich. In 1941, he quit his job and enlisted with the Delaware National Guard regiment. During World War II, he served as an operative in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. He fought in North Africa, Europe and the China-Burma-India war zone. After the war, he was assigned to the US legation in Bangkok, Thailand. He left the army in 1946 and bec