1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910792448603321

Autore

Carruthers Susan L (Susan Lisa)

Titolo

Cold War captives [[electronic resource] ] : imprisonment, escape, and brainwashing / / Susan L. Carruthers

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2009

ISBN

1-282-77264-3

9786612772641

0-520-94479-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (351 p.)

Disciplina

909.82/5

Soggetti

Popular culture - United States - History - 20th century

Cold War - Social aspects - United States

Captivity narratives

Political prisoners - History - 20th century

Repatriation - History - 20th century

Defection - History - 20th century

Brainwashing - History - 20th century

Cold War in mass media

Cold War in motion pictures

Cold War in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Between Camps -- 1. Upper East Side Story: Repatriation, Romance, and Cold War Mobilization -- 2. Bloc-Busters: The Politics and Pageantry of Escape from the East -- 3. Stalin's Slaves: The Rise of Gulag Consciousness -- 4. First Captive in a Hot War: The Case of Robert Vogeler -- 5. Prisoners of Pavlov: Korean War Captivity and the Brainwashing Scare -- Epilogue: Returns and Repercussions -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.