The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon

During the Korean War, a group of soldiers was captured and brainwashed. One of the soldiers (Raymond Shaw) was programmed to be a killed. When given the code and trigger (involve a certain card in solitaire), he would obey a command and remember nothing of what he done. This gave him the perfect opportunity to commit murder. He would have no recollection of doing it and thus be impossible to convict. After he returns from the war, he gets a job at a newspaper and is programmed to knock out his boss.

The Raymond's stepfather is a senator in the mold of anti-communist McCarthy. Raymond's mother is the one who runs the political show. Ben Marco was a friend of Raymond's from the war. He has nightmares about the brainwashing experience and tries to find out more.

Things then get carried away. Raymond kills a few political figures. He later gets married, only to assassinate his wife and father in law (a senator). Marco finds out the nightmares were real and slowly uncovers the codes to trigger Raymond. Raymond's mother works to move her husband up in the political ranks until he is nominated to VP with a plan to become president after the presidential candidate is assassinated. Marco, however, catches on and has the plan changed so that Raymond kills his mother and step-father instead and then takes his own life.

The characters have eerie parallels to modern politics with reactionary political figures and media. There have been a few movies made with different time periods and would not be hard to envision a modern one today. The brainwashing seems a little "too good", but it makes for good drama with a little bit of suspended belief. Raymond's mom is easy to hate. She is so hungry for power, and loves to manipulate and use others. She is willing to conspire with the enemy, kill and manipulate. After being abused by her father she turns around and abuses her son. This is mostly her story of power and manipulation, with a brainwashing device to move it along.