A new OPB documentary explores how the Vietnam War still deeply affects Oregonians, even nearly 50 years after the end of combat operations in Vietnam.

David A. Horowitz, History Professor and anti-war activist talks about his experience on Portland State University campus about the Vietnam War, the Kent State shootings, and Vortex I Music Festival. [the bulk of the interview can be found at 45:08-50:54]

On arriving at PSU and the Vietnam War protest:

“I was here at Portland State, I came to teach here in 1968, so I was a young, angry, radical professor. And I came here knowing that and I had a student deferment from the draft and I felt a moral responsibility to work against the war in any way I could, but I didn’t really know what that meant.”

On the Kent State shooting:

“I think it was important that students walk out nationally to show their rage at the fact that National Guardsmen were gratuitously shooting people on a college campus.”

On the PSU Park Block Protests:

“I’m standing next to some fellow who went after this cop, and the cop just took his baton and hit the guy on the head and I swear it was like a cartoon, and the guy crumbled down to the ground, and I said, ‘oh my god, I’ve got to get this guy out of here, this isn’t right.'”

About the Vortex I Music Festival:

“At the same time Governor McCall organized a free rock festival out in McIver Park out in Clackamas County called Vortex, which was supposed to attract young people away from the city so there would not be a confrontation with the American Legion.”

Source: ‘The Vietnam War Oregon Remembers,’ An ‘Oregon Experience’ Documentary | Arts & Life | OPB