1960s Counterculture

Leading Factors
Birth Control Movement After WW2 contraception became legal due to the

efforts of the birth control movement. During the 1960s the technology of contraception was improving, and lead to a sexual liberation which allowed recreational sex without fear of pregnancy, such as condom lube. 1960 U-2 incident On 1 May 1960 a U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. President Eisenhower initially denied the incident, but the truth was revealed by Khrushchev. The plane and the pilot were both examined by the Soviets, and America was informed. This caused large distrust within the civilian population of American politicians. The Cuban Missile Crisis In 1962 the Soviet Union started moving nuclear weapons to Cuba. The US response was a naval blockade to stop the ships entering. An agreement was reached 13 days later, but the threat of nuclear war was heavy. This caused the American public to question whether a mass political system was truly necessary. Mass communication TVs had been around since the 1950s, but the amount of sets increased massively throughout the 1960s. This allowed news to be transmitted throughout America, which meant events such as the assassination of President Kennedy, Bloody Sunday and the lunar landing were witnessed by everybody in America. FM radios and electric guitars also caused music which could be louder and put through effects to personalise it. Musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles were now mass hits due the advertising of their music through radio and TV. Effects
Independence communities such as The Hog Farm which ran self

sufficiently made people live beyond outside influences and return to agriculture. These communities were usually involved heavily with psychedelic drugs, yoga, and music to increase spirituality and community values. Increased focus on spirituality Drugs such as LSD elevated people to higher state of consciousness, where users felt disconnected from reality as though they were on a different plane of existence. The CIA also ran experiments to examine the effect of LSD taking on the body, one such patient was Ken Kesey.