Posted on 05/03/2010 6:27:24 PM PDT by jazusamo
Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.
As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new and very different light on the tragic episode.
The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.
Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.
An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets the worst in Kent's history was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."
But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation never before reported between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.
"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."
The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
For living!
well, I guess now we should go ahead and ask, how about the forensics on the bullets? 100% Guard-fired or???
I am not one bit surprised, and can easily believe this.
It has been heard from a variety of sources, but a good firsthand one is David Horowitz in his book “Radical Son” where he has various acrimonious discussions (I believe one with Abbie Hoffman) on the tactic some on the radical left planned to use of getting crowds of protesters whipped up, then igniting a fuse by some method to really get some bloodshed going.
Horowitz thought this was criminal and was derided for it. He understood that wasn’t what the vast majority of those protestors were out there for, and he was aghast they would be used as pawns by the radical left.
The intent is to provoke. More to the point, the intent is precisely not to shoot the Guardsmen (in this case) and leave no trace of what you did. Assuming a gun was fired, the intent was to get the Guardsmen to fire without any apparent provocation.
The leftist media, as it does today, becomes the vehicle for perpetuating the fiction. And in those days there was no internet or alternative news sources but the MSM.
It was in our enemies interest to foment revolution in our country. That was the only way they were going to win the war. Money was flowing into the groups to further their activism and no one asked where it came from.
It worked well.
The students were protesting the US trying to stop the communist takeover of another country. The student protesters and communists won and 2 million people in Cambodia died.
Not nearly enough were killed at Kent State
We need more mom’s like you!!
BS. Minus Vietnam these idiot radicals were still there spoiling for a fight. They just would have chosen some other cause.
Plus you have to remember that Vietnam was about containing Soviet Communist expansion. It was part of a strategy that worked -- where is the Soviet Union today?
Finally, don't let the history revision get to you: In spite of horrible political and military leadership, we won the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, our treasonous democratic congress surrendered South Vietnam after the war was over.
It really is a shocking revelation to some that the anti-war movement was mostly about using easily confused colleges students as an instrument of war.
Some are embarrassed, some are mad about being used.
Right over by the grassy knoll.
thanks for the link
“The MSM will never touch this. The history is written the way they like it and they arent going to change it.”
You nailed it.
The left wing mediots and their masters who controlled the MSM at that time lied about everything from Tet to the reality of Kerry/Fonda/Ted Kennedy and that sadly has become our history.
ABC, NBC and CBS plus the print media lied 24/7/365 about what happened in Nam and at home re the protesters, and as I noted above, that is now our history.
Well said and 100% correct.
Had it not been for the enemedia giving credibility to the antiwar faction I doubt the slime ball politicians would have cut off funds to South Vietnam, but we’ll never know.
Thanks. Some things are beyond the pale to me, and I’m glad to see others share that view.
I agree. One of the articles I read did seem to mention rounds found behind the NG. Two instances of munition impacts were addressed.
If this hadn't happened, there would still be a South Vietnam and the millions who were killed by American inaction would still be alive.
The left was already here, and elected to office.
Mr. Perkins, a member of G Company, had just returned from riot duty in a Cleveland neighborhood. The students he met in town, he said, charmed him.
“They were the nicest people. They would sit and talk to us about the war in Vietnam. Of course, we had nothing to do with the war in Vietnam. The girls would bring us flowers. They were just young students. We were their age and we got along great,” he said.
The abrupt change came mid-morning May 4. Guardsmen made a long loop across a football practice field, pushing back students with tear gas. Mr. Canfora said the students had become enraged after several young people were cut with bayonets. The guardsmen knelt and pointed at the students, did not fire, then marched up a what is called Blanket Hill as students gathered in a parking lot below.
That was when guardsmen spun around, seemingly in unison.
“The reason we all turned around was we heard two gunshots. I honestly can tell you I don’t think it came from our ranks,” he said.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10124/1055309-84.stm#ixzz0mzEXFbDk
It is never a good idea to scare someone with a loaded weapon unless you are looking to be shot.
Last year, Allison Krause’s younger sister, Laurel, was relaxing on the front deck of her home in California when she saw the County Sheriff’s Deputy coming toward her, followed by nearly two dozen men. “Then, before my eyes,” she recalls, “the officers morphed into a platoon of Ohio National Guardsmen marching onto my land. They were here because I was cultivating medical marijuana. I realized the persecution I was living through was similar to what many Americans and global citizens experience daily. This harassment even had parallels to Allison’s experience before she was murdered.”
Laurel was only 15 when the Kent State shootings took place. “Like any 15-year-old, my coping mechanisms were undeveloped at best. Every evening, I remember spending hours in my bedroom practicing calligraphy to Neil Young’s ‘After the Goldrush,’ artistically copying phrases of his music, smoking marijuana to calm and numb my pain.” When she was arrested for legally growing marijuana, “They cuffed me and read my rights as I sobbed hysterically. This was the first time I flashed back and revisited the utter shock, raw devastation and feeling of total loss since Allison died. I believed they were going to shoot and kill me, just like Allison. How ironic, I thought. The medicine that kept me safe from experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder now led me to relive that horrible experience as the cops marched onto my property.”
two felonies were reduced to misdemeanors, and she was sentenced to 25 hours of community service.
published in High Times magazine
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