The North Koreans were considered the masters of brainwashing techniques and they experimented with some success on American POWs in the Korean War. In 1959, author Richard Condon wrote a book entitled The Manchurian Candidate, later made into a popular movie, which used the fact of Korean War brainwashing as a plot device.  One of my college professors had been an army psychiatrist in that war and had been involved with repatriated American soldiers who had been victims of Korean torture and brainwashing. He recounted to us what the army discovered about the sorting process of captured Americans.

They first separated the officers from the enlisted men, which most armies have traditionally done in order to deny the men access to trained leaders. According to my psychologist-professor, the communists then tried to determine which men possessed strong religious faith– traditionally poor candidates to turn against their nation. Other criteria for selecting the most likely to succumb were the men of weak moral character and ones who knew little of their own country’s history. According to my Professor, the men who didn’t know much about the past or their republican government were much easier to turn toward a socialist or communist world-view. (Aside: “socialism is communism in homeopathic doses”)

It is surprising to me that not every American soldier who fought in Korea knew about the Founding Fathers or appreciated the sacrifices made by previous generations to protect their liberties. The Constitution was unknown to some of them and they were told that the history of the United States was an unrelenting story of oppression, poverty, and injustice and that they were victims of an imperialist conspiracy. Regardless of what you think of the U.S. involvement in the war in Korea, ignorance of our political and personal rights and freedoms and taking American material prosperity for granted proved a real weakness when the communist psychological warfare officers got their hands on some of the U.S. soldiers. They successfully turned a few GIs against the United States; some even chose to remain in The Peoples’ Paradise of North Korea after the war.

I was again reminded of the reality of those criteria for brainwashing during a conversation with an FBI agent a number of years later. He was a polygraph expert and had been drawn into the infamous Patty Hearst kidnapping case in 1974, perhaps the biggest national news story of that year (my graduation from college was the #2 story). He said that Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped by a revolutionary terrorist organization known as the “Symbionese Liberation Army” (SLA), was carefully singled out for the same brainwashing techniques perfected by the North Koreans. The SLA had been trained in those techniques. Their victim knew little American history, took her great material advantages for granted, and was of questionable moral character. Miss Hearst underwent unspeakable torture and was made an automaton, totally subject to the orders of the killers who used her to help stage a bank robbery and other crimes.

Such tales remind us that every new generation must be taught the stories and values of our past; that knowledge and wisdom is acquired at the knees of grandparents and parents, in church, at the dinner table, on vacation, at historic sites, and in good books. Helping Americans, especially young ones, understand and appreciate their history is the mission of The Circa History Guild. We will never replace parents or formal education but perhaps we can help out or inspire greater appreciation of our heritage.

The Circa History Guild has received a uniform for display that belonged to Major Edwin Heller who was an Ace P-51 pilot in the 2nd World War and an F-86 sabre jet pilot in the Korean War. In 1951 he was shot down over China and held in prison there for three years. Fellow aviator Robert “Punchy” Powell knew him well and said there was no one tougher or more patriotic in the air over Korea (and France). Edwin Heller survived all that the Chinese and Koreans could dish out and was repatriated after three years of captivity, defiant and unchanged.  He eventually retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, and died just a few years ago.

The more you know about your heritage as an American, the easier you will recognize propaganda designed to manipulate and confuse and the more likely you are to stand in the day of battle.

Bill Potter