The "Oxford English Dictionary" records the earliest known English-language usage of the word "brainwashing" in an article by a journalist Edward Hunter, in "Miami News", published on 24  September 1950. Hunter was an outspoken anticommunist and was alleged to be a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist. Hunter and others used the Chinese term to explain why, during the Korean War (1950-1953), some American prisoners of war (POWs) cooperated with their Chinese captors, and even in a few cases defected to their side. British radio operator Robert W. Ford and British army Colonel James Carne also claimed that the Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their imprisonment.