We must be on the same train of thought. I've been reading up on this same topic and I'll look for that book. A friend sent me an internal CIA memo, from 1956. They're talking about Korea, but it would be frighteningly easy to say "Straight" instead. Here's a just a bit:
4. Control of Communication. This is one of the most effective methods for creating a sense of helplessness and despair. This measure might well be considered the cornerstone of the communist system of control. It consists of strict regulation of the mail,reading materials,
broadcast materials, and social contact available to the individual. The need to communicate is so great that when the usual channels are blocked,
the individual will resort to any open channel, almost regardless of the implications of using that particular channel. Many POWs in Korea, whose only act of "collaboration" was to sign petitions and "peace appeals," defended their actions on the ground that this was the only method of letting the outside world know they were still alive. May stated that their morale and fortitude would have been increased immeasurably had leaflets of encouragement been dropped to them. When the only contact with the outside world is via the interrogator, the prisoner comes to develop extreme dependency on his interrogator and hence loses another
prop to his morale.
Another wrinkle in communication control is the informer system. The recruitment of informers in POW camps discouraged communication between inmates. POWs who feared that every act or thought of resistance would be communicated to the camp administrators, lost faith in their fellow man and were forced to "untrusting individualism." Informers are also under several stages of brainwashing and elicitation to develop
and maintain control over the victims.
