(YouTube)“Donald Trump: A Modern Manchurian Candidate?”These bold words were printed on page A31 on the New York Times atop a column questioning the president-elect’s affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The phrase first came into existence thanks to Richard Condon, who in 1959 wrote a novel by that title — “The Manchurian Candidate” — in which a platoon of decorated soldiers return from the Korean War, after being brainwashed to believe in communism. (The comparison to Trump is derived from the thought that he might be a puppet of the Russian government.) At the end of the war, the Army estimated that one out of every seven American prisoners of war had collaborated with the enemy. And, of course, it was remade into a 2004 Denzel Washington blockbuster, updated to have the soldiers returning from the Gulf War.

Source: Washington Post January 13, 2017 11:54 UTC