From 1960 to 1967 Beatlemania spread throughout the world. Places that didn't even speak English were sweplt by the craze. In San Francisco, the Summer of Love was gearing up. For their performance, the Beatles changed thier name to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to match the other bands with lenghthy names. "People gathered outside to dance in the sun in free outdoor concerts, the sweet smell of marijuana smoke drifting lazily overhead. Speakers every blared out Sgt. Pepper. It was happening. It was now. It was peace and love and freedom" (Partridge, pg 128). The Beatles were so historic that they performed the first global satellite TV broadcast on June 25, 1967. They performed the song "All you Need is Love". This song "summed up the philosophy of the sixties" (Partridge, pg 134). The band had an enormous following, and Lennon decided it was time to use his power of influence to do good. Apart from repeatedly announcing his anti-war views, He returned his MBE (Member of the British Empire) to the Queen Elizabeth for their involvement in the Vietnam War and the Nigeria-Biafara conflict. No member had ever recieved the MBE and no one had ever returned it. In 1968, Lennon started getting involved with Yoko Ono, an avant-garde artist. He lost many devoted fans as he divorced his wife and married Ono. He also changed his name to John Winston Ono Lennon. He abandoned his old friends and made new radical, liberal, friends. One of these friends was left-wing activist Jerry Rubin. "Rubin convinced Lennon to perform in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 10, 1971, to free John Sinclair, leader of the White Panther Party, who had been arrested for selling two joints of marijuana to undercover policemen. (The White Panther Party worked in tandem with the Black Panthers to promote cultural revolution)" (Hammet). Because of his constant obsession with Ono and his growing agressiveness, the band broke up and Lennon simply continued his political activism.

Lennon And the Vietnam War

On Lennon's honeymoon with Ono,March 25, 1969, they invited the press to their bedroom. They said a happening was going to occur in their bedroom. "These guys were sweating to fight to get in first because they thought we were to be making love in bed." (Lennon). It was actually a bed-in for peace. They were staying in bed for a week to protest the war in Vietnam. They held another bed-in for peace in Montreal where lennon showed the press his new song, "Give Peace a Chance". The song filled the air at two marches fo peace in October and in November. Each march held over half a million protestors, all chanting Lennon's song. "They seemed to sing forever, and not stopping. It was one of the biggest moments in my life." (Lennon).