Episode 39: Brainwashing - A History

Before the release of Edward Hunter's 1951 book, the term 'Brainwashing' did not exist in the English Language. Originally a translation of a Chinese term for political reeducation (洗腦，or "wash brain"), the term might have remained unknown in the US. However in the the next two years several thousand American (and international) Prisoners would undergo this 'Brain Washing' during the Korean War.

The fact that this process seemed so effective (23 Americans refused to return to the US, wanting to stay in China) lead to an explosion of interest in Brainwashing and Mind Control, both in fiction and policy.

In this episode we discuss reports of those initial 'Brain Washings', how it was done, how to resist it, and the results it could achieve.

We also discuss the US's reaction, and the CIA's attempts to compete with its own ambitious brain washing program, and its successes and failures.

Selected Sources:
Brain-Washing in Red China: The Calculated Destruction of Men's Minds (1951), Edward Hunter
Brainwashing: The Story of Men Who Defied It (1956), Edward Hunter
Maoism: A Global History (2019), Julia Lovell
The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate" (1991), John Marks
The Korean War (1987), Max Hastings