1970: tragedy at Kent State: with the Vietnam War escalating, Ohio National Guard troops fired at a crowd of student protesters, killing four of them.

On May 4, 1970, a flash of gunfire catapulted a typical Midwest college campus onto the front lines of America's war over Vietnam. In 13 chaotic seconds, Ohio National Guardsmen fired their weapons at antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine.

The shootings galvanized the antiwar movement worldwide. Overnight, the name Kent State was immortalized, and the photograph of an anguished 14-year-old girl screaming over the body of a slain student seared the nation's conscience.

"It was one of the most powerful images of the 20th century," says Jerry M. Lewis, a sociology professor at Kent State.

Thirty-five years later, the legacy of that fatal confrontation remains, not just on the campus of the state university in northeastern Ohio, but also whenever government authority clashes with civilian resistance, or when calls for patriotism during wartime run up against the desire of citizens to voice dissent.

A WIDENING WAR

The late 1960s and early '70s were tumultuous times on America's college campuses. U.S. combat troops had been sent to Vietnam in 1965 to aid South Vietnam in its war with Communist North Vietnam. By the beginning of 1970, 38,000 American troops had been killed and the war had become increasingly unpopular, with college students at the forefront of the antiwar protest movement.

A fresh wave of protests, some of them violent, was sparked by President Richard M. Nixon's announcement on April 30 that the U.S. was widening the war by attacking Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.

On Saturday, May 2, the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps building at Kent State was torched; stores downtown had been looted the night before. The governor of Ohio summoned the Ohio National Guard, and troops arrived armed with tear gas and loaded M-1 rifles. Students, confined to their dormitories, called a rally for Monday at noon. Protesters gathered on the Commons, a grassy site used for football rallies. A National Guard officer ordered them to disperse.

Guard troops fired tear gas, but most of it wafted away. Some of the gas canisters were tossed back at the troops, along with stones. The weary and apparently frightened Guardsmen marched up a hill, turned, and opened fire on about 2,000 protesters and bystanders. Official accounts said that 28 Guardsmen (out of about 100 present) fired between 61 and 67 shots, striking 13 students who were from 20 to 250 yards away.

Two young men and two young women, ages 19 and 20 (not much younger than many of the Guardsmen) were dead. Of the nine injured, one was permanently paralyzed.

Guard officials later said that the troops, outnumbered and out of tear gas, acted without specific orders but did have discretionary authority to return fire. Initial reports said some believed they were responding to sniper fire, but no evidence of a sniper was ever found.

NIXON'S REACTION

After the shootings, President Nixon issued a statement that described the deaths as "tragic and unfortunate," but laid some of the blame on the protesters. "This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy," Nixon declared. Robert I. White, Kent State's president, ordered the university closed.

The photo of a 14-year-old runaway from Florida kneeling over the body of a slain student--the photo was taken by a Kent State student, who won a Pulitzer Prize for it--was published around the world. Memorial services were conducted across the country for the slain students.

CAMPUS UNREST

Antiwar demonstrations and strikes escalated on campuses, prompting the closing of hundreds of colleges and universities before the spring semester was officially over. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a popular rock group, recorded a song, "Ohio," that became an antiwar anthem:

   Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
   We're finally on our own
   This summer I hear the drummin'
   Four dead in Ohio.

Later that year, a commission on campus unrest appointed by President Nixon concluded: "The actions of some students were violent and criminal, and those of some others were dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible. The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted and inexcusable." The commission blamed the Ohio National Guard's policy of issuing loaded weapons to troops called to control civil disorders.

A state grand jury charged 25 protesters with rioting and related offenses, though only two were convicted. The grand jury concluded that the Guard troops had acted in self-defense. It placed most of the blame on university administrators for "an attitude of laxity, overindulgence, and permissiveness," and said the university had contributed to the crisis there by the "overemphasis which it has placed and allowed to be placed on the right to dissent."

A federal grand jury indicted eight of the Guardsmen, but a judge ruled that the prosecution hadn't proved that the troops had intentionally deprived the protesters of their rights and he dismissed the charges.

In 1979, a civil court suit ended with the governor and 27 Guardsmen formally expressing regret. The state agreed to pay a total of $515,000 to the nine injured students, and $15,000 to the parents of each of the dead students. On May 4, 1990, the university community dedicated a permanent memorial, inscribed with the words: "Inquire. Learn. Reflect." May 4 has become an annual day of remembrance at Kent State, with commemorations and other events.

LESSONS LEARNED

Why remember? As Kent State professors Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley have written, the famous photograph "will remain forever as a reminder of the day when the Vietnam War came home to America." Also, they wrote, there's an opportunity to learn from the terrible events of May 1970.

"The Guardsmen in their signed statement at the end of the civil trials recognized that better ways have to be found to deal with these types of confrontations," the professors concluded. "This has probably already occurred in numerous situations where law-enforcement officials have issued a caution to their troops to be careful because 'we don't want another Kent State.' Insofar as this has happened, lessons have been learned, and the deaths of four young Kent State students have not been in vain."

(QUIZ 3)

Kent State Shootings

1. The event that inspired the May 1970 antiwar protests in which four Kent State University students were killed was

a the U.S. presence in Vietnam.

b the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

c the decision by the Ohio National Guard to station troops on the Kent State campus.

d President Nixon's criticism of antiwar protesters as violent.

2. Troops were sent to the campus following

a a presidential order.

b an appear for help by local police.

c the burning of an Army Reserve Officer Training Corps building at the university.

d threats against public officials by Kent State students.

3. A commission that studied the Kent State shootings placed most of the blame on university administrators for their

a failure to call in authorities sooner.

b encouragement of the student demonstrators.

c public criticism of the war.

d overemphasis on the right to dissent.

4. A grand jury indicted eight of the National Guardsmen

a and required them to pay restitution to the wounded students and to the parents of the dead students.

b and a judge sentenced four of them to jail terms.

c but recommended leniency.

d but a judge dismissed the charges.

5. Why do you think college students were at the forefront of the antiwar protest movement?

Answer Key

1. (b) U.S. invasion of Cambodia.

2. (c) the burning of an Army Reserve Officer Training Corps building at the university.

3. (d) overemphasis on the right to dissent.

4 (d) but a judge dismissed the charges.

5. Answers will vary but might include the idea that young people are often more idealistic than older people. Also, people their age were being drafted to serve in the war.