The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate , first published by McGraw-Hill in 1959, is the second and most famous novel by the American political novelist Richard Condon. The story of a American soldier brainwashed by Communists to be an unwitting political assassin, it was the basis for two films of the same name, in 1962 (by John Frankenheimer) and 2004 (by Jonathan Demme). The term "Manchurian candidate" is in general use to describe a person who, impelled by some sort of exterior mind control, is constrained to carry out another person's agenda.