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John D. Marks

The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate": The CIA and Mind Control: The Secret History of the Behavioral Sciences Paperback – August 17, 1991

by John D. Marks (Author)

168 ratings

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"The CIA exposé to end all CIA exposés." ―New York

A 'Manchurian Candidate' is an unwitting assassin brainwashed and programmed to kill. In this book, former State Department officer John Marks tells the explosive story of the CIA's highly secret program of experiments in mind control. His curiosity first aroused by information on a puzzling suicide. Marks worked from thousands of pages of newly released documents as well as interviews and behavioral science studies, producing a book that 'accomplished what two Senate committees could not' (Senator Edward Kennedy).

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

August 17, 1991
Dimensions

5.7 x 0.8 x 8.7 inches
ISBN-10

0393307948
ISBN-13

978-0393307948
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most important books of the year. . . . We see the CIA on the cutting edge of inquiry into hypnosis, drugs, brainwashing, personality assessment, psychosurgery, electric and radio stimulations of the brain, the creation of involuntary amnesia, terminal shock therapy."
― Playboy

"Perhaps the most compelling, well-researched, organized and well-written account of CIA operations ever."
― Progressive

"A comprehensive, detailed and thoroughly readable account of the CIA safehouses, the brainwashing experiments, the involvement of the universities."
― Washington Monthly

"Fascinating reading."
― Washington Post

From the Back Cover

A 'Manchurian Candidate' is an unwitting assassin brainwashed and programmed to kill. In this book, former State Department officer John Marks tells the explosive story of the CIA's highly secret program of experiments in mind control. His curiosity first aroused by information on a puzzling suicide. Marks worked from thousands of pages of newly released documents as well as interviews and behavioral science studies, producing a book that 'accomplished what two Senate committees could not' (Senator Edward Kennedy).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Revised ed. edition (August 17, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393307948
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393307948
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 0.8 x 8.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #111,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #95 in Espionage True Accounts
- #230 in Political Intelligence
- #706 in Political Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
168 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

168 global ratings

5 star		79%
4 star		12%
3 star		4%
2 star		3%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Viknord

Well documented & inciteful book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 9, 2000

Verified Purchase

I was a bit hesistant to purchase this book, fearing that it would be nothing but conspiracy drivel, but I was happily surprised to see that Marks had done his homework and had "not" strayed from his supporting documents. With this type of book there is always a concern that the author will rely on over generalization and speculation rather than grounding the work on substantial supporting evidence, but Marks does well to stay within the confines of his knowledge and the facts at hand.
For those interested in this book, which I recommend, I would also like to recommend "Pyschiatry and the CIA" by Harvey M. Weinstein, M.D. Weinstein describes a specific account of CIA funded behavioral modification research that was unwittingly foisted upon his father via his father's psychological treatment by Dr. Ewen Cameron. I think this book would be a nice compliment to Marks' book.
Another book I might mention, although I'm sure many academics as well as other alumni would disagree with me, is "Michel Foucault: Ethics" Vol. 1 edited by Paul Rabinow. Pages 66-85 are especially relevant, which deal with the State's power over its population ("Bio-power").
Other books dealing with behavior modification, albeit with less emphasis on State complicity, are: "Age of Propaganda" by Anthony Pratkanis & Elliot Aronson, and "Battle for the Mind" by William Sargant.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

trish j

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

This should be a required reading in school! Im glad John Marks pursued his FOIA request for the CIA documents and received the remaining MK ULTRA documents still kept within the CIA. These documents added proof to what was suspected in the CIA. Though many detailed files were destroyed in '73 This is, unfortunately, a part of our history that is kept quiet or when it is talked about it is filled with disinfo. The '77 Senate Hearings on MK ULTRA also documents many things that are in this book. With interviews from former agents and people involved along with the requested documents, John Marks has put together a picture of the CIA's MK ULTRA Program. It is fact. We need to wake up to what is going on under our noses. During that period of time, programs were documented. I believe it is after '72, the CIA decided to stop documentation so there would be no paper trail. How are they being held accountable now? Who really believes that there isn't some sort of testing and experimenting going on right now? It's hard to believe they would just abandon their interest in these projects when they have dedicated so many years and have so much money invested simply because their activities were discovered.

35 people found this helpful

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Elliot Malach

Sex, Drugs and... CIA?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 20, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is a fascinating book on the author's analysis of released documents and contact with those involved in overseeing experimentation of the CIA projects into mind control and behavioral science. For obvious reasons, most of the doctors and CIA employees declined to be interviewed or gave little additional information.

What's interesting is not only what is included here, but what must also be out there still classified. This is only the information the CIA felt was mild enough to be disseminated for public consumption. That included giving LSD and other pharmaceuticals in various combinations to students, or, in most cases, to "throw-away" people like prostitutes, drug addicts and prisoners, where bad results could be easily hidden with fewer people asking questions.

Of course, almost all documentation has been destroyed, except some records that were found on MKULTRA. Is the CIA that inept or was these records "found" on purpose? If these were the only records, it would be useless for anyone to pursue the matter further, and the project could continue "black." As obsessed as the CIA was with mind control and hypnosis, it is hard to believe they would just cancel the programs.

Some good did come out of these CIA endeavors: Timothy Leary and Ken Keesey received their original LSD doses courtesy of the CIA grants to our institutions of higher learning. The rest is history.

10 people found this helpful

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Timothy Ackerman

The CIA's quest for mind and body control

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

Since the beginning of the human race, there has always been men or groups of men that have wanted to control another man or groups of men. Some of the ones who chose to control felt that they were the chosen ones and the rest needed to be controlled, that they weren't able to survive without being controlled. The chosen ones controlled for the good of mankind, or so they thought. This group, the CIA, feels that if they don't keep ahead of the enemies of the United States when it comes to mind control and body control techniques, that we will be defeated by our enemies. Defeat is not an option, so what ever it takes, the CIA will make sure that we stay ahead of the enemy, WHATEVER it takes.
I enjoyed the details set forth in the book seeing that the author had little to work with except for CIA financial records released because of the Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with people who worked for or were involved with the CIA. Anyone who has seen the Good Shepherd or the Bourne movies and then reads this book will realize that those movies may seem closer to reality than one first thought. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in how our government REALLY operates.

14 people found this helpful

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RLE

Kindle version is jumbled

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

The book appears to be quite interesting. However, the Kindle version is unreadable in some areas as there are words and complete sentences that are scrambled and don’t make sense. Footnotes, etc. are very out of place. It is too irritating to enjoy reading to the extent that I’m returning it for a refund.

Helpful

Blankwave

The original behind-the-scenes look at the horrific Nazi-inspired CIA mind control program

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

One of the first books on the MKUltra program based on independent research, released years before the CIA started using their assets in the media to create “limited hangouts,“ or, disinformation, misinformation, and other bought-and-paid-for “books” minimizing the insipid, fascist, mind control experiments of the postwar, Cold War era.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Eric Lee

The unbelievable story of the CIA's experiments with mind control

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

First published more than 40 years ago, this book tells the unbelievable story of the CIA's experiments with mind control. Some of these even pre-date the founding of the CIA itself. Its forerunner, the OSS, had some rather hare-brained ideas of its own, including some rather bizarre plans to kill or incapacitate the German führer, Adolf Hitler, that involved his vegetable garden. The book's title is a bit of a misnomer, as only a small part of the volume considers ways to hypnotise an assassin. The rest of the book is far more mundane, as the CIA looked for new techniques to analyse personalities and especially locate weaknesses in their opponents. But the section on the "Manchurian Candidate" scenario is fascinating. The Agency went so far as to hypnotise one secretary into shooting another (not knowing that the gun was loaded with blanks). Some of its boffins were convinced that the scenario envisaged by author Richard Condon in his fictional account was a real possibility. Part of the reason the CIA looked into this was precisely because of the concern that America's Cold War enemies might well have been considering the same thing. Whether the Soviets or Chinese ever made their own efforts in that field is something that we may never know.

2 people found this helpful