The Manchurian Candidate Political Satire

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) by John Frankenheimer provides great satirical the tone that the Korean War set forth in Cold War United States. The movie itself released while the Cuban Missile Crisis was unfolding in 1962 certainly sets the context of the viewers at the time. The movie depicts the fear of communism washing up on American soil as the 1950s were heavily marked as fearing the communists who might be seated within the United States government. The film critiques United States’s apocalyptic worst fears when it drafted its post-war foreign based on the Truman Doctrine and quivers over communism. Nevertheless, Manchurian Candidate is a political satire about the negative impacts of the transformation of United States society emerging

in its new world leadership role.
Skeptical Anxieties.

The United States involvement in the Korean War heightened the fear of communism resulting in the skeptically based anxieties within the central government. The title of the film itself satirically reflects the anxiety-induced nature of United States domestic and foreign policy in the 1950s that communism would spread starting with the Korean peninsula. The Manchurian Candidate embodies these anxieties were fictionally brought back from the Korean War and situated itself into the sacred United States electoral system like that of a spread of a plague. These skeptical anxieties would materialize in McCarthyism and the HUAC investigations of the 1950s. The film embodies skepticism that even though the fight was halted in Korea, communism could cross oceans and invade the dominant foundation of capitalism without a trace. This strikes great parallels with today's ongoing discussion of alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election and even alleged Russian connections to President Trump's campaign. The movie’s most dramatic part is that it was unknown to all until one step from the presidency. The Manchurian candidate makes it clear that anxieties like this really did exist in the

1950s.
The film’s main character Raymond Shaw’s Medal of Honor recognition is right away devoured into his stepfather Senator Iselin’s campaign representing the McCarthyism of the 1960s. Paralleling Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy who stated he had a list of two hundred some names, that is really all they were. They were based on subjective evidence with no empirical evidence that there were seated members of Representatives and Senator's communists. This concept serves more than the fictional communist uprising. The film demonstrates that American anxieties and strategic action military action in the Korean War was to contain communism and fueled by the skeptical anxiety of communism spreading. In response to anxieties of the impending Korean War, the United States drew the border at the 38th parallel. However, just as the fictional Senator Iselin’s list of names was only on paper, in reality, would end careers of politicians. The silencing of opponents was the same in the Korean War. The creation of the line divided families and those who lived near the paper drawn border. By suppressing civilian opponent voices to ensure Democratic values, it split families and disrupted life furthered by the crusades to contain sympathizers in the south under the directional of Syngman Rhee.
Inability to Accept Other Views. The Cold Era term brainwashing was a result of the ubiquitous dominate democratic mindset that corrupted the minds of American society. The movie serves as a reminder of the incomplete mission of United States suppression of communism from the Korean War that lingered in the United States dominate post-war context. After the unified domination of the Nazi’s, the world would again be divided among ideologies of viewed good and evil. The films main character Raymond Shaw as a brainwashed machine for the communist party illustrates the fear that American had for communism. The plot of the film goes into depth the how Raymond Shaw was brainwashed, but Raymond Shaw's actions provide a greater context on American society. Frankenheimer could have been criticizing the deep anti-communist sentiment embedded deep into every American society. Just as the command of the Queen of hearts, communism was framed into the minds of Americans as the essence of evil.
The movie also embodies the arrogance of the United States due to its inability to recognize different critical opinions of others because of democratic brainwashing. In the film, Dr. Yen Lo of the Pavlov Institute asks the audience “to forgive their somewhat lackadaisical manners [because] I have conditioned them, or brainwashed them.” These “lackluster manners” of Korean War manifested itself to the real veterans that did not return and who patriotized. The inability to accept, or recognize other sides of peoples story can be seen with the POW letters we read during this semester. In 21 Stayed, about Clarence, a POW the friend states “they must have doped them or used hypnosis, then got them to do something they wouldn't have done otherwise” (137, 21 Stayed, Virginia Pasley). It was unimaginable for American people to conceive that other views of organizing a country could be accepted other than democracy. The film in a somewhat serious manner reminds the viewer that those who accuse others of being brainwashed are under the influence of imposed memory. To an extent that many actually believed that those who denied American values were really brainwashed. Being brainwashed was the scapegoat the reason for POW unwillingness to repatriate to the perceived dominant world power; the United States.

The Brainwashed Legacy. The Korean War anti-communist mindset created the inability to accept diverging from the clearly defined norm of the new world order. The premise of the film is a United States platoon led by Major Bennett Marco and Captain Raymond Shaw being captured behind enemy lined and then transported to a facility deep within in North Korea. The films Pavlov Institute conditioned Major Bennett Marco to repeat hypnotically exactly as instructed about the legacy of Shaw, “Raymond Saw was the greatest man I have ever known who courageously took out 3 sniper nests…..” Though the film uses this caveat to further the powers of the Pavlov brainwashing, I think it serves as an important reminder of the memory and legacy of the conflict to the scale of the Korean War in American society. Like the false dreams of others in the platoon including Bennett Marco who toiled with the finding the truth then realized he was hypnotized, reconciling with the war is the hardest part. In addition, that fact can suppress as a result of American foreign policy due to being the sole dominant provider of democracy. That there is a United States sponsored documented memory inadvertently brainwashed in every member of American society. Moreover, such as the effect the United States Cold War society was activated by a queen of diamonds (communism) and like Shaw were able to kill on demand anyone and everything. The His remembrance of this may be a shot at the United States Raymond Shaw the machine where each of us has a different perspective. Although the Korean War is remembered as a police action or proxy war, it never ended. That the legacy of the war like the snappy recorded response from the captured platoon of soldiers was educated to be a larger action against communism.
Moreover, Raymond Shaw was told over and over that his love of Jocelyn Jordan could never work because her father was Senator Iselin’s political opponent.

Deemed a communist in disguise by the head of state his mother Eleanor Shaw. These conflicting views that Raymond had to constantly listen to how Eleanor Shaw Ischloen demonized Chaney in spite of hiding that herself were the “American operator.” Much like how the forbidden love between Raymond and Jocelyn, the Korean War pinned the concept of communism as never compatible with democracy because of the unending discrepancies from the rivalry that was unwinding in the early 1950s. That there was no co-existence other than obliteration. This climatic section of Raymond's life could represent a greater aspect of the perceived incompatibility with the United States and communism furthering the war was waged on behalf of the American policy of condemning

communism.
The Forgotten War was named because it was overshadowed by the triumphs of WW2, but this film suggests it never existed with the cease-fire and the anxieties of the Korean war was really brainwashed into American Society. Although the movie characters evident with Marco and the other platoon members illustrate the then unknown role of PTSD in the 1950s, it shows that anxieties were something that all the soldiers brought back from Korea. Although a far-fetched plot, this movie is a great snapshot into the mindset of American society when discussing the legacy of the Korean War.