Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Grew Up… with political ambitions. Since birth, Raymond seems to have been destined for greatness – and with the support of his mother, powerful Senator Eleanor Shaw, Raymond seems ready to fulfill her grand plans for her son.
Living… in Washington D.C., where he's something of a celebrity. Part of this is Raymond's charisma; part of it is Raymond's status as a war hero, after receiving the Medal of Honor for his service in Kuwait.
Profession… running for Vice President of the United States. It seems that everything is aligning for the Shaw: he’s just beaten out his mother’s old political rival for the Vice Presidential nomination, and his political stardom just seems to keep rising up and up.
Interests… his political career. Raymond is content with his success until he receives a strange visit from his old commander, Major Ben Marco, who brings disturbing news about the “nightmares” he’s been having about Kuwait. Seemingly deranged, Ben believes that something else happened in Kuwait, and that the entire unit has been brainwashed – including Shaw. It's a hard story to buy, but Shaw wants to believe his former commander. “Are we friends, Ben?” Shaw asks Marco. “I want to believe we were friends.”
Challenge… dealing with the political pressure caused by Ben’s uproarious claims. After Ben approaches Senator Tom Jordan, Eleanor Shaw’s old rival, with evidence that a corporation called Manchurian Global is trying to hijack the election, Raymond finds himself questioning everything that he thought was true about the war, the United States of America, and his very own past. Shaw wants to believe his old commander, even if it means sacrificing everything he and his mother have worked for.
Personality… clean-cut, honorable, and charismatic. With his voting record, family, and military history, Shaw is the ideal candidate for Vice President. The perfect politician, it’s almost as if Shaw was tailor-made for U.S. politics.
Get to Know him in...
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When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.
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Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists 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 soon races to uncover a terrible plot.
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The classic thriller about a hostile foreign power infiltrating American politics: “Brilliant . . . wild and exhilarating.” —The New Yorker A war hero and the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sergeant Raymond Shaw is keeping a deadly secret—even from himself. During his time as a prisoner of war in North Korea, he was brainwashed by his Communist captors and transformed into a deadly weapon—a sleeper assassin, programmed to kill without question or mercy at his captors’ signal. Now he’s been returned to the United States with a covert mission: to kill a candidate for US President . . . This “shocking, tense” and sharply satirical novel has become a modern classic, and was the basis for two film adaptations (San Francisco Chronicle). “Crammed with suspense.” —Chicago Tribune “Condon is wickedly skillful.” —Time
