Category: Obituaries

In 1959, when the U.S. Government decided to conduct tests using psychoactive drugs on paid volunteers at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital in the San Francisco area, they didn’t know what a cuckoo’s nest they were about to unleash on the world. Taking part in the study on the then legal drug LSD, along with psilocybin, mescaline and amphetamine IT-290, was Ken Kesey, an unassuming graduate student in creative writing at Stanford University. During the period of several weeks, Kesey “dropped” hallucinogenic drugs and wrote about his “tripping” experiences for government researchers.

Most antiwar protesters of the Vietnam era never participated in a war, making it difficult for them to defend themselves from charges that they were merely cowards who were afraid to fight. This was not the case for Philip Berrigan, one of the most important players in the antiwar movement of the 1960s, who was drafted and served in World War II.