Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by Russian communists taken to Manchuria, and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and, together with fellow soldier Allen Melvin, races to uncover a terrible plot.
Shaw's mother, Mrs. Eleanor Iselin, Mrs.is the driving force behind her husband, Shaw's step-father, Senator John Yerkes Iselin a bombastic demagogue in the style of Joseph McCarthy, who is dismissed by most people as a fool. However, unknown to everyone including Raymond, the Iselins are actually Communist agents with a plan intended to take them all the way to the White House. His mother is actually the American "operative" for whom Raymond is to effect the operation's final step.
Iselin primes her son to assassinate their party's presidential candidate at the nomination convention so that Senator Iselin, as the vice-presidential candidate, will become the presidential candidate by default and give an inflammatory anti-Communist speech (written by the Communists themselves). This will cause mass hysteria that will get Iselin, "the Manchurian candidate", elected and justify such emergency powers that, in Mrs. Iselin's words, "will make martial law seem like anarchy”. (A synopsis of the ‘Manchurian Candidate, author Richard Condon)
A demagogue, low on self esteem, high on insecurity, and full of bravado,Trump, steps into the political tent. Surrounded by clowns and side-show acts, this performer uses smoke and mirror, grifting, the fear of truth and a bombastic, bullying personality, to have everyone look at the facade he so convincingly provides. The architecture of his facade has not been constructed in America, but perhaps with better insight and attention it may be discovered it has been made with great care and cunning by the Russians. An empty shell of a sinister personality, needed so desperately to be the boss and the HYM6ep OHe (number one in Russian) , the Russians, play their hand at espionage, promising this guy Trump the world. He buys into the plot and plan but forgets that as scheming and insincere as he is, the Russians and Vladimir Putin are even more devious. Maybe blackmail, maybe billions, maybe a statue in Red Square, but he Trump, buys into the treason and promises that only he can Make America Great. He is buoyed by bigots, racists, and Republican Party so afraid of Democracy, they are willing to pretend the Russians have nothing to with the Trump Campaign. (Trump Campaign, author, Vladimir Putin)
The older I get the more books I read and movies I see, I am amazed at the insight most authors and writers have when it comes to predicting the future. I used to think that fiction was scary, but living in this nation in 2016, I fear more so the facts!
