满洲候选人 (1959)

《满洲候选人》（英语：The Manchurian Candidate）原是美国作家李察·康顿（Richard Condon）在1959年出版的政治惊悚小说。小说以朝鲜战争为背景，主人公被绑架后送到了满洲，所以取名为《满洲候选人》。该小说在1962年改编为电影。2004年翻拍，改以海湾战争为背景。

后来满洲候选人成为美国政治词汇，意思是“傀儡”、“受人操纵”、“被洗脑”的候选人。

2012年美国网站上出现了一个攻击正在参选总统的前美国驻华大使洪博培的政治广告。广告配着中国音乐，让洪博培穿上八路军军装，讽刺他的中国背景可能让他成为一个满洲候选人。人们原来怀疑这个广告的幕后人是罗恩·保罗议员，保罗议员的团体否认，还谴责这个广告。

2022年2月16日，时任澳大利亚总理莫里森于议会答询时，指责反对党澳大利亚工党前排议员理查德·马尔斯为满洲候选人，意即工党收到中国共产党支持。但同天随后收回了该说法。

改编电影

《谍网迷魂》（1962年）

《战略迷魂》（2004年）

The Manchurian Candidate (1959), by Richard Condon, is a political thriller about the son of a prominent U.S. political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy. The novel has been adapted into a feature film twice; the first is The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which deals with anti-communist hysteria in U.S. politics, and the second is The Manchurian Candidate (2004), which deals with corporate interference in the U.S. government.

Plot summary

Major Ben Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and their infantry platoon are captured by a Soviet commando unit during the Korean War, in 1952. The captured POWs are taken to Manchuria, in China, where they are brainwashed to believe that Shaw saved their lives in combat — for which Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor.

After the war, Major Marco, now working as an intelligence officer, is transferred to New York and moves in with Shaw, now working as a journalist. The brainwashing had convinced Marco that Shaw is a good friend and wonderful human being, but Marco knows in the back of his mind that it isn't true, that Shaw is "impossible to like." Marco has a knack for meeting women, and Shaw's apartment is suddenly filled with girls day and night. Shaw sleeps with some of the women; his captors had given him a "gift" of releasing his formerly-suppressed libido. However, Shaw still pines for his true love, Jocelyn Jordan, whom he met the summer before going to Korea. Jocelyn is the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan, a liberal opponent of Shaw's stepfather, the anti-Communist demagogue Senator Johnny Iselin. Shaw's ambitious mother Eleanor, who is the driving force behind her second husband's career, had therefore sabotaged her son's relationship with Jocelyn.

Some time later, Marco begins suffering a recurring nightmare in which the seated platoon members are surrounded by a group of sweet old ladies who had been a part of their brainwashing. One of the ladies tells Shaw to murder two of his platoon comrades, which he does. The backdrop with the old ladies changes back and forth between them and Chinese/Soviet intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another of the platoon's soldiers has been suffering the same nightmare, he starts looking into why this is happening.

Some Communist officials arrive in New York to re-activate their conditioned assassin. The trigger phrase is "Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?" Shaw will then play cards until he turns over the queen of diamonds, which is the trigger card bringing him to his fully conditioned state. At this point Shaw, who is known to be a crack marksman, can be commanded to perform any act and will have no memory of it later. As a test, Shaw is assigned to kill his immediate superior at the newspaper, and does so.