This provocative history of early cold war America recreates a
time when World War III seemed imminent. Headlines were
dominated by stories of Soviet slave laborers, brainwashed
prisoners in Korea, and courageous escapees like Oksana
Kasenkina who made a “leap for freedom” from the Soviet
Consulate in New York. Full of fascinating and forgotten
stories, Cold War Captives explores a central dimension of
American culture and politics—the postwar preoccupation with
captivity. “Menticide,” the calculated destruction of individual
autonomy, struck many Americans as a more immediate danger than
nuclear annihilation. Drawing upon a rich array of declassified
documents, movies, and reportage—from national security
directives to films like The Manchurian Candidate—his book
explores the ways in which east-west disputes over prisoners,
repatriation, and defection shaped popular culture. Captivity
became a way to understand everything from the anomie of
suburban housewives to the “slave world” of drug addiction.
Sixty ye