The Day Vietman Became Tricky Dick's War

John Filo took this photo - a Pulitzer Prize winner - of Mary Ann Vecchio screaming over the body of Kent State University student, Jeffrey Miller, murdered by National Guard troops during an anti-war protest on campus. The event we know as the Kent State University massacre became a landmark in American history. The date was May 4, 1970. 

That day four unarmed students were killed and nine others injured by members of the Ohio National Guard. Years of conflict over the nation's role in the Vietnam War already had millions of Americans on edge. In seconds, 67 shots fired into a crowd of defenseless students marked the beginning of both the end of an already very unpopular war and a controversial president already well-known as "Tricky Dick" Nixon.

For three days prior to the massacre Kent State had been hit with violent demonstrations threatening both the campus and downtown commercial district. The Ohio National Guard had been on scene by the evening of May 2. From a city firehouse, Governor James Rhodes fueled the conflict by referring to the protesters as "brown shirts...the communist element... night riders... and the vigilantes."  Days earlier President Richard Nixon referred to some campus protesters as "bums."

May 4 began with university officials attempting to ban a campus protest that had been planned days earlier. The result was a loose gathering of around 2000 persons met by guardsmen armed with tear gas and fixed bayonets. For reasons undetermined shots were fired into the unarmed crowd. The average distance of those killed was 345 feet from the guardsmen. The event incited a strike involving millions of students across the nation, forced the closing of hundreds of universities and colleges, and marked a turning point in national opinion among many who had supported American involvement in Vietnam, an ever escalating action that began in 1959.

On May 18, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, one of the nation's most popular bands, released the song, Ohio, as an expression of the anger and frustration as well as a call to action among young Americans over both the war and the murders.

 

A week after Kent State, police killed a student and a passerby at a demonstration at Jackson State College in Mississippi. An unquestionable sense of rebellion began to grip the nation. The Nixon administration was well aware of the situation and took steps to mitigate the danger and political erosion. One of those steps was the creation of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest- the Scranton Commission - in June 1970. The commission was tasked with reviewing the incident. After three months of work the commission concluded:

Even if the guardsmen faced danger, it was not a danger that called for lethal force. The 61 shots by 28 guardsmen certainly cannot be justified. Apparently, no order to fire was given, and there was inadequate fire control discipline on Blanket Hill. The Kent State tragedy must mark the last time that, as a matter of course, loaded rifles are issued to guardsmen confronting student demonstrators.

Location map, Scranton Commission report

Over time the event has been remembered in severak way including the designation of the seventeen acre site as a National Historic Landmark in 2016.  Kent State University also commemorates the event through its May 4 Visitor Center.