While his superiors don't think he knows what he is talking about, they decide to is send him on leave. His Commanding Officer Major Bennett Marco ( Frank Sinatra) has been having nightmares that lead him to believe that the circumstances that led to Raymond getting the medal are not true. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (Dame Angela Lansbury). When he returns, he distances himself from his domineering mother, Mrs. Raymond Shaw ( Laurence Harvey) is an insufferable man, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, for saving the lives of the men in his unit while in South Korea. After witnessing some unusual behavior in Raymond, Bennett Marco knows that something is not right and discovers an unprecedented conspiracy against the United States. Bennett eventually decides that the one person who can best help him figure out the source of the nightmare is Raymond.
What Bennett is unaware of, is that at least one of the other eight survivors, with whom he has not kept in contact after returning to the States, has a similar version of the same nightmare. It was a relationship that Eleanor Iselin forced her son to break off, as she could not tolerate Raymond being with the daughter of a man who she considered a Communist. Raymond would in fact admit that he is an unlovable person, he only having loved and been loved once in his life, to Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), the daughter of Democratic Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver). If asked in return, Raymond would corroborate that he did not get along with any of the men, including Bennett, who all disliked him. What makes the nightmare more disturbing is that, in reality, he is compelled to say only the nicest things about Raymond whenever asked, which he knows he doesn't truly believe.
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Bennett Marco (now reassigned to a post in Washington, D.C.), who nominated Raymond for the award, suffers from a recurring nightmare, where he, the nine other men, plus two who never made it out of the battle, are attending what is on the surface an innocuous New Jersey women's gardening club meeting, but which he can feel has sinister undertones related to Raymond. After the war, Raymond leaves the Army to start a job in New York City as the confidential assistant to well-respected political journalist Holborn Gaines (Lloyd Corrigan), who has never written a nice thing about the Iselins. The Medal of Honor was the result of Raymond saving nine members of his army battalion, including his commanding officer Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), in what was a multi-day battle behind enemy lines. Despite John being largely seen as being a buffoon, he has garnered a modicum of political success largely due to his anti-Communist rhetoric. Eleanor Shaw Iselin (Dame Angela Lansbury), wants to capitalize on Raymond's name in the re-election bid of her husband, Raymond's stepfather, Republican Senator John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), which does not sit well with Raymond, who despises both of them. Raymond's controlling and ambitious mother, Mrs. military men who arrive back from the Korean War awarded the Medal of Honor. Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is only one of seventy-seven U.S. When Marco learns that others in his Korean War unit have had nightmares similar to his own, he realizes that something happened to all of them in Korea, and that Raymond Shaw is the focal point. Senator John Iselin ( James Gregory), who is intent on seeking higher office. Raymond hates her, not only for how she's treated him, but equally because of his stepfather, the ineffectual U.S. She is a red-baiter, accusing anyone who disagrees with her right-wing reactionary views of being a Communist. has established himself well, despite the misgivings of his domineering mother, Mrs. He's put on indefinite sick leave and visits Shaw in New York City. Marco has a major problem however: he has a recurring nightmare, one where two members of his squad were killed by Shaw. He served valiantly as a Captain in the Korean war and his Sergeant, Raymond Shaw ( Laurence Harvey), even received the Medal of Honor. Major Bennett Marco ( Frank Sinatra) is an intelligence officer in the U.S. An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.