Return Engagement - Timothy Leary vs G. Gordon Liddy (Debate Tour 1983)

In 1983 long time arch rivals Dr. Timothy Leary & G. Gordon Liddy went on tour to debate each other at several college campuses. The tour was filmed and released as a documentary called Return Engagement.

Here's the backstory, Dr. Timothy Leary was a professor & head of the Psychology department at Harvard. He is most known for dosing his students with Psilocybin & Lysergic (something I'm not allowed to say)... and went on to be a one of the largest players in the 60s hippie counter-culture movement. He was labeled by the Nixon administration as the most dangerous man in America. He fled in exile to Europe and was eventually captured, then extradited and sent to Folsom Prison in California. His most (in)famous phrase you may remember is 'Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out.'

G. Gordon Liddy was a CIA operative in the Nixon administration who was implicated in the Pentagon Papers for breaking into the office of psychiatrist Lewis Fielding and the DNC headquarters in what came to be known as the Watergate Scandal. He also led a police raid on the psychedelic headquarters of Timothy Leary in upstate New York.

Both men who were on opposite sides of the Cultural/Political movement in the 1960s, both men served time in prison for their crimes, both men generally unfavored among the american public (although Leary definitely had the youth following).

In 1983 after both men had served their prison time they went on tour debating each other onstage at various college campuses across the US.

The following videos feature Leary & Liddy debating such things as the War on Drugs, CIA's MK Ultra Mind Control Program, Hippie Culture, Partisan Politics, Ethics of Power, etc. All topics are ripe for discussion on ATS.

I wasn't able to catch this even when it occurred in 1983. My guess is most of you probably didn't either. So here you go and enjoy!







BONUS: Timothy Leary & Gordon Liddy debate again in 1990.

I'm flattered by the S&Fs but I was hoping that some of us could actually have a discussion about the OP .