Season Two, Episode One
”The Magpies”
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We have Disney-fied the hippies. The bellbottoms and paisley and the slow drawling about “peace and love” have become a shorthand for childish idealism, a way to diminish the validity of what was much more than a pop-culture moment - it was a vast and persuasive anti-war movement that radically undermined the US boondoggle in Vietnam and ultimately helped drag public opinion to a place where the war became too unpopular to continue.
But by “The Summer of Love” in 1967, a lot of the good vibes had curdled into something else, and when “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)” hit the radio, kids from all over - as many as 100,000 of them - flocked to the Haight in the hopes of cheap drugs and free love. A potent political movement turned into a way to sell stuff to American teenagers, same as it ever was.
The Magpies are veteran hippies, so to speak, and are as annoyed with this encroachment on their community as any other hipster seeing their utopia co-opted. But they are still true believers who believe that with love and solidarity, the disastrous war in Vietnam can be stopped. But what happens when wishful thinking collides with imminent disaster? When the missiles are coming, is it really time to meditate?
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And now, the real question you’re probably asking: did the CIA really plant undercover agents in the peace movement? Well, it probably won’t surprise you to know that they did. As exposed by Seymour Hersh in the NYT, from 1967-74 the CIA ran an espionage project called Operation CHAOS (seems like they could have picked a more benign name, but what do I know) that “authorized agents to follow and photograph participants in anti-war and other demonstrations.” Under the pretext of “uncovering foreign influence”, the CIA ran an extensive domestic spying program that included information gathering on protesters and even members of Congress. The CIA is explicitly not authorized to conduct policing within the US, but apparently they… found a workaround.
This is from “Covert Action” magazine, which was founded by a former CIA agent and has been accused of being funded by the KGB, among others. Draw your own conclusions about its veracity:
Meanwhile, the FBI was running its own infiltration and surveillance program, COINTELPRO. This was focused on anything Director Hoover could call subversive, including the SCLC, the NAACP, Dr. Martin Luther King, and virtually every part of the anti-war movement. Don’t take my word for it - you can read documents about their work on the FBI’s website.
And what about the drugs? Could the US government really have been feeding drugs to a bunch of disaffected teenagers? Well, the legendary MK Ultra program certainly indicates that our intelligence apparatus had access to plenty of LSD - in fact, in the early 1950s the CIA paid $240,000 to buy the entire world’s supply of LSD from Switzerland’s Sandoz Laboratories. They then experimented on soldiers, citizens, and hundreds of prisoners (including Whitey Bulger!) to see what kind of mind-control properties this wonder drug might have. Check out this interview with journalist Stephen Kinzer, who wrote a book about MK Ultra mastermind Sidney Gottlieb.
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Ok, about the episode. Bodhi is played by a terrific actor named Tim Griffin, who has been in any number of huge movies and TV shows and also has been one of my best friends since the 7th grade. I was thrilled to get the chance to make something with my old friend, and he really delivers, playing both sides of Bodhi in a thrillingly convincing way. The other Magpies - Netta Walker, Kevin Tre’von Patterson, and Lucy Carapetyan - are spectacular actors who are beloved in the Chicago theatre community. They made these people feel real in a way I could have only dreamed.
And finally, we got a star turn from my old friend Ed Begley, Jr. I met Ed when he was a part of my movie Imperfections, and I have to tell you everything you want to believe about the guy is true. He is a committed environmentalist, a warm and generous friend, and arguably has the best stories in the world. Do yourself a favor and check out Ed’s autobiography “To The Temple of Tranquility… And Step On It!”. It’s especially great to listen to the audiobook so Ed can tell you his story himself.