Many people have an inaccurate view of this event, while many people on both sides of the political equation maintain whatever belief is most palatable to their own points of view. Even after so long a time, fortunately, it is not that difficult to find the sequence of events that led to the ultimate confrontation of Monday, May 4th, 1970. The problem is, for many, it is best to ignore or forget certain things.
This was not about a repressive government oppressing innocent students who were simply doing nothing more than exercising their rights to assemble and protest under the First Amendment. Although there was certainly an element of peaceful, legal protest in the beginning, things quickly spiraled out of control.
It all began when President Richard Nixon announced on April 30th that the US and its South Vietnamese allies were in the process of expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia, in the hopes of then bringing the war to a final conclusion. He had long promised (and in fact was elected in part because of his promise) to end the Vietnam War and to bring "peace with honor". He was loathe to simply withdraw, as he fully understood this would be taken as a sign of weakness and defeat by America's enemies. Time has proven how prescient Nixon was, many times over. Of course, many of America's youth had other concerns, due to the draft. Any of them were subject to be called up to fight what was in essence an undeclared war-a police action.
When Nixon made his announcement, a series of demonstrations was scheduled for May Day, by the Kent State Victory Bell. This series of protests culminated in a symbolic burial of the constitution (in the form of a copy of the document). Many other students (including a former Vietnam Veteran) burned their draft cards. Throughout the day there was a series of speeches and crowd participation in the form of chants and slogans. It was really nothing out of the ordinary for the times, and in fact might have actually been quite benign in comparison to the general tenor of the times. Unfortunately, things later turned quite ugly, when a crowd converged on Water Street, where a number of bars were located, and began a street demonstration. Eventually, cops were pelted with rocks, and many of the bar patrons, many of whom were also students, joined the original crowd, they made their way toward town, overturning cars and smashing windows in the process. Banks ans loan companies were attacked, one bank having every one of its windows broken.
Eventually, the police restored some semblance of order and herded the students back toward campus, in addition to a number of people who didn't even live there or in that area. By now, rumors were circulating that the Air Force ROTC barracks were going to be attacked. To forestall this, all weapons were removed from the building, which was indeed attacked on the next day, Saturday the 2nd. It was in fact burned so badly nothing remained but the outer shell of the old building, which was more of a small shack than anything.
This was enough to encourage the Ohio Governor, Republican Jim Rhodes, to call out the National Guard. In the meantime, the mayor of Kent had previously announced a curfew from duck until dawn.
Sunday the 3rd was actually pretty uneventful, however uncomfortable it might have been due to the presence of the Guard. It was not until the next day, the 4th, that all hell broke loose. By now, the protest had turned into one of protest against the draft, and the Vietnam War and its expansion into Cambodia, into one of protest against the presence of the National Guard, who were attacked with rocks. No one is certain who gave the order to fire, but the matter might eventually be cleared up when modern technology is used to clean up the background noise of sound recordings of the event. One student is on record as stating that he clearly heard the order given to fall back and fire. Maybe soon the mystery will be solved-but there's really no mystery to it.
If there is a mystery to be solved, it is more a matter of why anyone, students included, could engage in wanton mayhem and property destruction, destroy a military facility, and attack people-either private citizens or people of authority-with rocks, fists, or anything else, and be considered by many as heroes.
The only true tragedy that happened at Kent State is that the ones responsible for instigating the violence and mayhem were themselves not killed, or at the very least arrested and prosecuted.
