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/* History of the term */
== History of the term ==
{{See also|Cancel culture}}
The first modern use of the word was by CIA operative Edgar Hunter. He used it to describe "re-education" or [[rectification]] practices used on prisoners of war by the [[Communist Chinese ]] during the [[Korean War]].<ref name=Hunter>Hunter E, "'Brain-Washing' Tactics Force Chinese into Ranks of Communist Party," ''Miami News'', September 24, 1950. Cited by John Marks, "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate", ch. 8 ("Brainwashing"), in ''The Psychedelic Library''. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/marks8.htm></ref> The chief concern was that seventy percent of American [[prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] had confessed to various activities, including without limitation the use of biological agents, that fall under the category of "[[war crime]]s." Another fifteen percent collaborated actively with their captors, and only five percent resisted to the end. All prisoners had been subject to often brutal interrogation techniques, including sleep deprivation.
Acceptance of the term in American English was not without controversy; many people, and especially [[World War II]] veterans did not believe such a thing was possible, and that POWs alleged to have been "brainwashed" were simple weakminded traitors. Since then, other terms to describe similar phenomena have entered even into the medical and psychiatric lexicon, such as [[Stockholm Syndrome]] to describe similar phenomena.
Marks reports that the [[CIA]] attempted to develop a brainwashing technique of their own. After years of experimentation, they concluded that no reliable method existed to make anyone do or say anything he would not otherwise want to do, except that months of the brutal regimen in Soviet or Chinese prisons would be sufficient to cause a prisoner to say or do anything to bring the ordeal to an end. Marks also notes that British and other allied prisoners did not confess or collaborate in such large numbers.<ref name=Marks>Marks J, "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate", ch. 8 ("Brainwashing"), in ''The Psychedelic Library''. Accessed April 8, 2009. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/marks8.htm></ref>
