Carl Oglesby was a great storyteller, public speaker, debater, author, and staunch political activist. Among many other activities, he became president of the leftist student organization Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1965.

Politically he was not a left-wing radical or a right wing radical. He didn’t like the corporate conservatives as he called them and he didn’t like left-wing socialists either. And he was staunchly against the welfare state which he believed would weaken the American democracy. He was more of a libertarian and a person who asked difficult and challenging questions about America at that time. Although in his young life he was a staunch anti-Communist, he began to question the Vietnam War and became an political leader against America’s involvement and leadership in that war.

As he became more and more radical in his 1960s antiwar views the Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver asked him to serve as his running mate on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in that year’s presidential election. Carl said no.

In 1969, he was forced out of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) by leaders saw him as being too bourgeois.

My interview with him was touching for me because I found so much of what he said and how he said it, absolutely fascinating. I am hopeful that my subscribers who watch this will find him as interesting as I do.

He died of lung cancer at his home in New Jersey in 2011. I want to thank Carl for putting the effort into this interview with me and answering the questions as he did in such emotional detail.

You can see part one of my interview with Carl here -    • A Timeless Story! 1960s Dad Rejects S...