The Manchurian Candidate is a 1959 thriller novel written by Richard Condon, later adapted into films in 1962 and 2004. See also: 1958 in literature, other events of 1959, 1960 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Richard Thomas Condon (born March 18, 1915 in New York, New York; died April 9, 1996 in Dallas, Texas), was a satirical novelist best known for conspiratorial tales such as The Manchurian Candidate. ... The Manchurian Candidate is a film adapted from the satirical 1959 novel written by Richard Condon. ... The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American film based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film. ...

The central concept of the book and the subsequent 1962 film is that the son of a prominent political family has been brainwashed into becoming an unwilling assassin for the Communist Party; in the 2004 version, the villain was instead a giant corporation called "Manchurian Global". Brainwashing, also known as thought reform or re-education, is the application of coercive techniques to change the beliefs or behavior of one or more people usually for political or religious purposes. ... constitutional robocracy In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ...

Some say that the title of the original novel refers to the then-prevalent joke that Senator Joseph J McCarthy was giving legitimate opposition to Communism such a bad name that he had to be a tool of the Communists—a Manchurian candidate. Joseph Raymond McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was a Republican Senator from the U.S. state of Wisconsin between 1947 and 1957. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ...

Plot

Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and the rest of their platoon are captured during the Korean War in 1952. They are all brainwashed into believing Shaw saved their lives in combat, for which he receives the Medal of Honor when they return to the US. After the war is over, Marco begins to have a recurring nightmare in which Raymond kills two of his comrades. When he learns that another platoon member has been having the same dream, he sets out to uncover the mystery. Combatants United Nations: Republic of Korea Democratic People’s Republic of Korea People’s Republic of China Soviet Union Commanders Syngman Rhee Chung Il Kwon Douglas MacArthur Mark W. Clark Matthew Ridgway Kim Il-sung Choi Yong-kun Peng Dehuai Strength Note: All figures may vary according to source. ... This article is about the U.S. military award. ...

The Communists intend to use Raymond as a sleeper agent and, using the queen of diamonds in a deck of playing cards as a subconscious trigger, compel him to follow their orders, which he doesn't remember afterwards. Raymond is controlled by none other than his own domineering mother, who is working with the F Communists in a plot to overthrow the government. Sleeper agents are spies who are placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as potential assets if activated at a later point in time. ... Some typical modern playing cards. ... The notion of a subconscious in some branches of psychotherapy is considered to be the deepest level of consciousness, that we are not directly aware of, but still affects conscious behavior. ...

Trotsky parallels

Russian Communist leader Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico in 1940, by Ramón Mercader. Mercader, who had been raised by his mother to be a T Soviet agent and assassin, was visiting in Trotsky's home as sleeper agent 1 when he killed him with an ice axe in the skull. 1915 passport photo of Trotsky Leon Davidovich Trotsky (Russian: Лев Давидович Троцкий; also transliterated Trotskii, Trotski, Trotzky) (October 26 (O.S.) = November 7 (N.S.), 1879 - August 21, 1940), born Lev Davidovich Bronstein (&#1051... Ramón Mercader Jaime Ramón Mercader del Río Hernández (February 7, 1914 – October 18, 1978) was a Spanish Communist who served as a foreign agent of the NKVD during Joseph Stalins time as ruler of the USSR. In that role, he became famous as the assassin...

Film adaptations

• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

The Manchurian Candidate is a film adapted from the satirical 1959 novel written by Richard Condon. ... The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American film based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film. ...

See also

• Assassinations in fiction
• Conspiracy thriller
• Project MKULTRA, CIA mind-control research program
• Sleeper agent

This is a list of fictional stories in which assassinations feature as an important plot element. ... The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller) is a subgenre of the thriller which flourished in the 1970s in the US (and was echoed in other parts of the world) in the wake of a number of high-profile scandals and controversies (most notably Vietnam, the assassination of President Kennedy, Chappaquiddick... Declassified MKULTRA documents Project MKULTRA (also known as MK-ULTRA) was the code name for a CIA mind-control research program that began in the 1950s[1], and continued until the late 1960s[2]. There is much published evidence that the project involved not only the use of drugs to... Sleeper agents are spies who are placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as potential assets if activated at a later point in time. ...

External links

• The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate", by John D. Marks
• Mind Control: The Rosetta Stone of the JFK Assassination, by Jerry Leonard
• Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists, by Colin A. Ross