Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962, USA)

Captain Marco Bennet (Frank Sinatra) wakes up every night from a nigthmare about a mission in Korea where he fought. His nightmare contradicts his memory of the events and he finds out that a fellow from his platoon is also having that same nightmare. The nightmare seems to center around Seargent Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) who was awarded the congressinal medal of honour for saving his platoon in that same mission. Captain Bennet starts to believe that his memory of that event is false and that he and his platoon have been brainwashed by communists to follow some plan they have against the American goverment. He later realises that the threat has roots with high ranking officials in the government.

Manchurian Candidate is a Cold War thriller and takes place in 1952 where the threat and fear of communism was at its peak. Between 1950 and 1953 Senator Joseph MaCarthy sought out, accused and trialed believed communists within the media and government. The movie goes further than just show commusist fear, some events in american history from that time are used and Senator John Islin (James Gregory) is a McCarthy type Republican in the film.