Reading list: Vietnam War Protests
I wrote a chapter in my book, shown below, about how 55 years ago, May 23, 1970, the Nixon White House canceled its scheduled shipment of 500 boxcars of deadly US WWII era military nerve gas (think sarin!) 380 dangerous miles from Seattle through Portland and on to the Umatilla Army base in Eastern Oregon. That was 11 days after our protest group spoke on the steps of Portland City Hall on May 12th before a crowd of 4,000 students and faculty members protesting the violent police attack on peaceful Vietnam War demonstrators at Portland State University the previous afternoon. We announced at that time that our protest group would be joining with Seattle activists in organizing many thousands in the Pacific Northwest to sit on the tracks blocking the nerve gas train the entire distance between our two cities. Nixon was obviously listening!

We had been told at the time that even minute amounts of that sarin-like gas would likely be lethal to anyone directly exposed. But Portland/Seattle activists permanently stopped that train dead in its tracks! Had the deadly nerve gas train derailed and caught fire in the Portland or Seattle metro areas it could have resulted in mass casualties.
Respectfully, Doug Weiskopf, Burbank, Ca.
website antiwarriors.com
Available on Amazon.com: hardcover & paperback, e-book on kobo.com