05-05-2010, 11:45 AM
I won't get into a long scholarly study of the incident... But here in NE Ohio the anniversary is a big deal every year. You can go to Kent right now and take a guided tour of the grounds. While I was only in middle school when it happened, I've met people who were there at the time and talked to them.
The Kent State tragedy was a classic case of a college town student riot gone very wrong. There were demonstrations against the war. People walked out of classes. A few hooligans started a bit of a riot, some shops were looted and the abandonedROTC building on campus (that was about to be torn down !) was burned down.
And the Governor of Ohio , James Rhodes, was informed that there were 'foreign communist agitators' making things happen and that 'more attacks were planned'. So he believed what he was told, over-reacted and called out the National Guard instead of the State Police.
In the 1970's, soldiers (with the exception of MP units) were trained to kill people and break things. That's all they knew. That's all their officers knew. The crowd advanced, the soldiers responded with their trained reflexes, and people died.
Who was to blame ? Ultimately, the Governor of Ohio, who sent the wrong people to 'keep the peace'.
The Kent State tragedy was a classic case of a college town student riot gone very wrong. There were demonstrations against the war. People walked out of classes. A few hooligans started a bit of a riot, some shops were looted and the abandonedROTC building on campus (that was about to be torn down !) was burned down.
And the Governor of Ohio , James Rhodes, was informed that there were 'foreign communist agitators' making things happen and that 'more attacks were planned'. So he believed what he was told, over-reacted and called out the National Guard instead of the State Police.
In the 1970's, soldiers (with the exception of MP units) were trained to kill people and break things. That's all they knew. That's all their officers knew. The crowd advanced, the soldiers responded with their trained reflexes, and people died.
Who was to blame ? Ultimately, the Governor of Ohio, who sent the wrong people to 'keep the peace'.