Posted on 05/04/2018 11:23:20 AM PDT by Simon Green
On this day in 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen killed four students and wounded nine others, one of whom was left paralyzed. The 13-second burst of gunfire started about 20 minutes after the guardsmen broke up a rally on the commons of Kent State University with tear gas, which they lobbed at a crowd of about 1,000 students.
Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia, which President Richard Nixon had announced in a nationally televised address on April 30. Others had been walking nearby or watching the protesting students from a distance.
In Washington, Nixon issued a statement in which he said: “This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy. It is my hope that this tragic and unfortunate incident will strengthen the determination of all the nation’s campuses, administrators, faculty, and students alike to stand firmly for the right which exists in this country of peaceful dissent and just as strong against the resort to violence as a means of such expression.”
In Columbus, Frederick Wenger, the state’s assistant adjutant general, said the troops opened fire after a sniper shot at them. “They were [told] to take cover and return any fire,” Wenger said.
But John Kifner, a New York Times reporter who was with the group of students, wrote that he “did not see any indication of sniper fire, nor was the sound of any gunfire audible before the Guard volley. Students, conceding that rocks had been thrown, heatedly denied that there was any sniper.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
The NYT reporter was wrong. As they perpetually seem to be
Remember well the SDS and Bill Ayers influence on all of these “protests”
The Guard fired over the heads of the rioters charging them.
Killed people up slope. Mostly in a parking lot.
The outsider SDS agitators who started the riots, and burned down the rotc biding the night before had already left the campus.
Later that year came the Peter Boyle movie “Joe” and the onscreen shooting of a young Susan Sarandon by her character’s father.
The best known active shooting incident (with assault weapons).
It’s a shame that those 4 student deaths so shocked and angered the sensibilities of the majority of Americans.
Much in the same way the ghetto riots of the 1960’s also changed our future reaction to civil disobedience and civil unrest.
What Kent State (and the riots) taught us was that we must accept and tolerate leftist violence and social disorder in these United States.
What a shame. If only Americans had the moral courage to correctly deal with riots and uprisings, we would not have events like Ferguson and Baltimore. Groups like Antifa and BLM would also be non-factors.
It would be easy to have peace and stability in our country if only right wing values were enforced.
Actually think they were armed with Garand type rifles.
After the event, there was massive talk of parents of students in the school yanking their kids out, and a massive pressure situation occurred. They dragged teachers in and said if they instigated anymore protests....they would be canned. Across the US....that came and the whole protest movement died within a 30-day period.
I had a boss who arrived three years later at Kent State to attend, and virtually no one talked about this on campus.
4 Dead in Ohio.
Sorta. The guard was on top of Taylor hill, the agitators were below them, charging up the hill. When they shot over the heads of the first rank, the guns were still pointed level or below the horizon and essentially aimed straight at the parking lot way behind. I don't know the breakdown but at least one of the killed was just walking to class.
If you ever get the Kent, visit the memorial behind Prentice hall and it's a short walk over to Taylor. I attended KSU in the late 80s and many people who still worked on Campus were there on May 4th 1970 as it was only 15-20 years later. I heard the stories from a bunch of different angles.
Been there. Heard Julian Bond speak. During the 70s
Well It’s not a good idea to fire warning shots, especially with real bullets.
Hey, Andrew ,the 70s called .They want their tie-dye ,bell-bottom news headlines back.
I had been in the Army Guard in Kansas less than a year after this happened. All sorts of training was instigated in the next few years to first, be ready for urban unrest, and secondly, be able to respond without mishap to either side unless positively appropriate.
Impacted my NCO training the following years as well.
“Actually think they were armed with Garand type rifles.”
Yes, they were U.S. M-1 Garands. Firing the 150 grain .30-’06 cartridge. And I knew the Vecchio girl (and her brother, Matthew) who was photographed there over one of the bodies. At the time, she was a “woman of the evening”.
“..What Kent State (and the riots) taught us was that we must accept and tolerate leftist violence and social disorder in these United States....”
No, we don’t have to tolerate it.
Especially when they’re threatening us, as they are now.
We may CHOOSE to tolerate it. But it IS a choice.
Until there is not other option.
Heck ya. Stupid!
My dad said that kinda put an end to the hippies protesting.
The worst thing about Kent State is that it allowed the Left to turn the Vietnam War into “Nixon’s War”, and it let LBJ and the Democrats off the hook.
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