The similarity between Dr. Hilarius’s “we want you” and Uncle Sam’s “I want
you” clearly establishes a link between the insanity of Hilarius’s experiment and the insanity of American foreign policy—specifically, the Vietnam War, which was just starting in 1964 (
The Crying of Lot 49 is set around this time). Hilarius’s performance of a “Fu-Manchu” facial expression also solidifies this connection, as Fu-Manchu was a fictional character who perpetuated racist stereotypes about Asian people (like those that many Americans espoused toward Vietnamese people during the war). Through this parallel, Pynchon suggests that both Hilarius and the U.S. government’s recruitment efforts deceive people into sacrificing themselves for someone else’s benefit by falsely promising that this sacrifice will give meaning to their lives. Like her relationship with Mucho, Oedipa’s therapy with Hilarius is more the product of obligation and inertia than of genuine desire. She does not think his treatments might actually work—even Hilarius’s own name points out that his practices cannot be taken seriously.