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This provocative history of early cold war America recreates a time when World War III seemed imminent. Headlines were dominated by stories of Soviet slave laborers, brainwashed prisoners in Korea, and courageous escapees like Oksana Kasenkina who made a "leap for freedom" from the Soviet Consulate in New York. Full of fascinating and forgotten stories, Cold War Captives explores a central dimension of American culture and politics-the postwar preoccupation with captivity. "Menticide," the calculated destruction of individual autonomy, struck many Americans as a more immediate danger than nuclear annihilation. Drawing upon a rich array of declassified documents, movies, and reportage-from national security directives to films like The Manchurian Candidate-his book explores the ways in which east-west disputes over prisoners, repatriation, and defection shaped popular culture. Captivity became a way to understand everything from the anomie of suburban housewives to the "slave world" of drug addiction. Sixty years later, this era may seem distant. Yet, with interrogation techniques derived from America's communist enemies now being used in the "war on terror," the past remains powerfully present.

Cold War in literature. --- Cold War in motion pictures. --- Cold War in mass media. --- Brainwashing --- Defection --- Repatriation --- Political prisoners --- Captivity narratives. --- Cold War --- Popular culture --- Motion pictures --- Mass media --- Brain control --- Brain-washing --- Forced indoctrination --- Indoctrination, Forced --- Menticide --- Mind control --- Thought control --- Control (Psychology) --- Mental suggestion --- Psychological warfare --- Change of allegiance --- Asylum, Right of --- Aliens --- Emigration and immigration --- Emigration and immigration law --- International law --- Refoulement --- Return migration --- Prisoners of conscience --- Prisoners --- Autobiography --- Prose literature --- History --- Social aspects --- United States --- 20th century --- Captivity in motion pictures --- Cold War in motion pictures --- Cold War in mass media --- Vogeler, Robert A. --- Prisoners of war --- Crimes against --- Korea --- Korean War, 1950-1953 --- 20th century american history. --- 20th century american politics. --- american culture. --- american history. --- brainwashing scare. --- captivity. --- cold war mobilization. --- cold war. --- communism. --- communist enemies. --- cultural history. --- defection. --- drug addiction. --- early cold war america. --- government and governing. --- gulag consciousness. --- historical. --- history. --- imprisonment. --- individual autonomy. --- korean war captivity. --- menticide. --- national security. --- popular culture. --- postwar america. --- prison. --- prisoners. --- repatriation. --- robert vogeler. --- united states of america.