Mind-Control Defense Won’t Wash, Some Say

In the days after the Korean War, a new insidious and dramatic weapon was unveiled to the horror of the American public: brainwashing.

“The men who went into battle in Korea against tanks and minds of the communist forces had not been given a hint regarding Red brain warfare,” wrote journalist Edward Hunter, who coined the term “brainwashing” after a Chinese informant called the process “hsi nao,” or “cleansing the mind.”

Now social psychologists and cult experts debate whether brainwashing even exists--some call it junk science, while others say it is the sinister process that sucked John Walker Lindh, a young man from Marin County, into the ranks of the Taliban.

University of Nevada social psychologist James Richardson, a leading critic of the term and concept, said that people use the notion of brainwashing to avoid the consequences of their decisions.

“None of us find it easy to say I did it, I blew it, it’s my fault,” he said.

At the end of the Korean War, when 21 captured American soldiers opted to stay with the enemy and hundreds more prisoners of war came home accusing each other of collaborating with their captors, public officials turned to brainwashing as the explanation.

Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, president of the American Psychological Assn. and a Stanford University psychology professor, said the powers of social influence cannot be denied.

“They are variants of well-known social psychological principles of compliance, conformity, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, framing, emotional manipulation, and others that are used on all of us daily to entice us: to buy, to try, to donate, to vote, to join, to change, to believe, to love, to hate the enemy,” he said.

Cult expert Steven Hassan, who himself was a cult member, is convinced that the Korean War POWs and Lindh were victims.

“I believe that with proper counseling, Lindh would be horrified at what brainwashing has made him do,” he said. “Indeed, it appears that mind control techniques similar to those used by my cult leader have been used by Osama bin Laden and his cronies to recruit, train, and exploit talented people to do their bidding.”

Congressional hearings following the Korean War prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to adopt a new Code of Conduct for American soldiers in 1955.

It says: “If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy. . . . I will never forget that I am an American, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free.”

As for Lindh, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft is apparently already arguing against a mind-control defense.

“Our complaint, based on Walker’s own words, is clear,” said Ashcroft in January, when Lindh first appeared in federal court. “Terrorists didn’t compel John Walker to join with them. John Walker chose terrorists.”