Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Dr. Noam Chomsky lectured on the Oregon State University campus on October 24, 1995. Chomsky spoke as the fourteenth Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecturer for World Peace. Following the completion of his prepared remarks, Chomsky fielded audience questions for nearly fifty minutes.

Topics included: a comparison of media coverage of two violent conflicts contemporary to his talk - Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia, and Kuito in Angola; the roots of socio-economic dysfunction in Haiti; the presidential candidacy of Ross Perot; the effectiveness of grassroots social action; and a long analysis of the U.S. government's "war on drugs."