Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Today is the Women's March, in both Washington, and around the world.  It has been reassuring to see so many people out in pink pussy hats, saying that we will not go back.  So this is my post for today, my warning, speaking to us from the Eisenhower Cold War days, warning us not to take our democracy for granted.
We decided to watch this classic movie that was set (and made) in the post McCarthy era but when the fear of the Soviet Union was at it's height.  The basic plot is that the Russians and the Chinese collude with each other to capture a soldier during the Korean War, and to brain wash him into being an assassin automaton.  The training takes place in Manchuria, and after a few trials of killing some of his fellow soldiers, he is sent home literally as a hero.  His whole unit is under the spell, and while they have nightmares, they are excused as the aftermath of war and not what they represent, which is memories returning.  The assassin is hooked up with his American handler and the plot fro control of the United States is set in motion.  The opposition has a candidate that they control, and they go about getting him into the White House by means other than those of a democratic state.  Is any of this sounding the least bit familiar?  Well, truth is stranger than fiction, and our current story has yet to finish unfolding.