It seems that Condon did not follow up his phone call as there is no correspondence between him and the Bureau in the file. The file rounds off stating that if Condon did approach the FBI for formal assistance in writing The Manchurian Candidate that this information be considered ‘in determining whether we will cooperate with him in any manner’. They did record how his first play – Men of Distinction – lasted for only four performances because ‘reviewers to a man found the plays about unsavory doings of cafe society characters unpalatable for their tastes’. The checks found nothing particularly derogatory, even noting that during WW2 he had ‘devoted much time gratis to national defense publicity’. The order for this investigation notes that ‘under no circumstances should Condon become aware of your inquiry’. Though they brushed him off by saying they couldn’t give out that information the FBI immediately requested a ‘discreet background check’ on the author. Eventually, he said, this riddle is solved by the FBI.Ĭondon had phoned up the FBI earlier that month to try to find out the Bureau’s term for a ‘general alarm’. He stated that in the book intelligence agencies such as the CIA, G-2 and FBI, on the basis of available facts, find it difficult to determine what is the Soviet interest in the Medal of Honor winner. He added that he expected to have a book entitled “The Manchurian Candidate” published in February 1959… Condon indicated that the book would deal with a Soviet plot to have the President of the United States assassinated by a congressional Medal of Honor winner. Exactly what Condon told the Bureau about Anderson is not clear (though presumably there is a file on Anderson that could yield this information). The previous year Anderson had published his most respected work They are human too: A photographic essay on the Palestine Arab refugees. The file on Condon covers August-September 1958 and reveals that the author had been interviewed by the FBI earlier that year in connection with the Swedish photo journalist Per-Olow Anderson.
The new documents were released courtesy of a FOIA request by John Greenewald of The Black Vault, and came not via the Bureau but from the National Archives. The Bureau even conducted a background search on Condon before the book was even published, solely due to it depicting the FBI. The FBI files on Condon and his most famous book draw numerous connections between the JFK assassination and The Manchurian Candidate (particularly the film adaptation). Author and publicist Richard Condon is best remembered for writing The Manchurian Candidate – a biting futuristic satire in which a Medal of Honor winning soldier is brainwashed by the Soviets to try to assassinate the US president.
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