Kent State 1970: American Killing Field

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.

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 several 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.

The Day Kent State University Became A Killing Field

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 several 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.

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.

  

National Vietnam War Veterans Day 2023

 

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The date, March 29. was chosen because the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was disbanded on this day in 1973 and the last U.S. combat troops left the chaos and devastation that was Vietnam. On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 officially recognizing the day. The Act also states that the US flag should especially be displayed in their honor.

Vietnam has left a huge footprint on American society. Our involvement began in 1955. Over 2,7 million men and women served served in Vietnam over the next eighteen years. The average age of a soldier was nineteen. One-third of them had been drafted. One-third of the draftees would be killed in the conflict. After spending one trillion dollars in today's economy the US for the first time in its history would return home without achieving its military objective.

In 1968 I had not yet formed a strong opposition to our nation's war against communist influence in Vietnam. My focus that summer targeted a new and narrow direction in behavioral studies involving geography, cartography and psychology. By early 1969 with no end in sight for what appeared to be a hopeless and seemingly endless struggle many friends immersed themselves in opposition to the war. I watched from the sidelines until my closest friend, a promising mathematician, elected to leave the country rather than face the increasingly troubling national crisis unfolding on the home front.

The day before he left he asked if I could drive him to his family home in the idyllic farm country near Emmitsburg, Maryland. He wanted to say "good-bye" to his family. For an hour I sat alone and still in an overstuffed chair in a comfortable, dimly lit parlor straight out of 1910. I heard them talking quietly in the distance. Sometimes I still hear them. On the return to Washington not a word was shared between us. It remains one of my strangest and darkest days. It was also the last day of my support for a military solution in Vietnam. The following day, Dave and his girlfriend left for Canada. I never heard from them again.

To the best of my knowledge, all but one of my classmates and friends who served in Vietnam survived. They returned to a conflicted nation that wanted so hard to forget the war that they often forgot the soldier. It's taken all of us a long time to correct that oversight. The average age of a Vietnam veteran is 68. It's well beyond time to thank them, to talk to their family members, and to donate to organizations that support them.

Today I look back on those memories of military parades, memorial activities of my childhood, and a career infused with military history from the colonial wars through Vietnam. I'll never experience how military service shapes a person inside but I know the cost of freedom is not free. Every Vietnam veteran has paid a price that enables us to enjoy life in this bountiful nation. I offer up to all of them my sincerest admiration and thanks on this, their day.

National Vietnam War Veterans Day 2022

 

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day. The date, March 29. was chosen because the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) was disbanded on this day in 1973 and the last U.S. combat troops left the chaos and devastation that was Vietnam. On March 28, 2017, President Trump signed the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 officially recognizing the day. The Act also states that the US flag should especially be displayed in their honor.

Vietnam has left a huge footprint on American society. Our involvement began in 1955. Over 2,7 million men and women served served in Vietnam over the next eighteen years. The average age of a soldier was nineteen. One-third of them had been drafted. One-third of the draftees would be killed in the conflict. After spending one trillion dollars in today's economy the US for the first time in its history would return home without achieving its military objective.

In 1968 I had not yet formed a strong opposition to our nation's war against communist influence in Vietnam. My focus that summer targeted a new and narrow direction in behavioral studies involving geography, cartography and psychology. By early 1969 with no end in sight for what appeared to be a hopeless and seemingly endless struggle many friends immersed themselves in opposition to the war.  I watched from the sidelines until my closest friend, a promising mathematician, elected to leave the country rather than face the increasingly troubling national crisis unfolding on the home front. 

The day before he left he asked if I could drive him to his family home in the idyllic farm country near Emmitsburg, Maryland. He wanted to say "good-bye" to his family. For an hour I sat alone and still in an overstuffed chair in a comfortable, dimly lit parlor straight out of 1910. I heard them talking quietly in the distance. Sometimes I still hear them. On the return to Washington not a word was shared between us. It remains one of my strangest and darkest days. It was also the last day of my support for a military solution in Vietnam. The following day, Dave and his girlfriend left for Canada. I never heard from them again.

 To the best of my knowledge, all but one of my classmates and friends who served in Vietnam survived.  They returned to a conflicted nation that wanted so hard to forget the war that they often forgot the soldier. It's taken all of us a long time to correct that oversight. The average age of a Vietnam veteran is 68. It's well beyond time to thank them, to talk to their family members, and to donate to organizations that support them. 

Today I look back on those memories of military parades, memorial activities of my childhood, and a career infused with military history from the colonial wars through Vietnam. I'll never experience how military service shapes a person inside but I know the cost of freedom is not free. Every Vietnam veteran has paid a price that enables us to enjoy life in this bountiful nation. I offer up to all of them my sincerest admiration and thanks on this, their day.

The Kent State Massacre At 50

Today is the 50th anniversary (1970) of the Kent State University massacre in Ohio. On 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 had millions of Americans on edge. Days before the event President Richard Nixon referred to some campus protesters as "bums." 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."

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, a escalating action that began in 1959.

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

In 2016,  Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, designated the seventeen acre site a National Historic Landmark. 

Veterans Day 2017

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on "the eleventh day of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month" of 1918. Today, this holiday honors the men and women who have defended the United States through service in the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

In my family I knew only three veterans, all uncles, one serving in World War I and the other in World War II. 

My Great Uncle George, standing on the left with his fire brigade in Jacksonville, Florida, served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War I, the Great War. To him, this day was Armistice Day. I was ten when he died and didn't know him, but much of what he was as a veteran is present in my house. His portrait hangs just off our foyer. The pocket Bible he carried is in a keepsake cabinet nearby along with his military issue binoculars and a silver-plated swagger stick - a gift from his unit - made from machine gun shells casings and the Seal of the U.S. Army. The last item is one he never saw, but it summarized everything he did as a soldier. That item is the flag that covered his coffin. To my knowledge, it's still in the original triangle fold made the day he was buried sixty years ago.

The other veterans, Uncle Hollis - better known as "Red" - and Uncle Charles both served in the Pacific during World War II. In 1943-44, Red was assigned to Barber's Point Naval Air Station in Hawaii while his brother-in-law, Charles, served at Pearl Harbor. The facilities were a mere five miles apart but almost one year passed before they knew they were so close. On hearing the news, they resolved to meet for a photograph at the first opportunity. And here it is, taken at Waikiki with Red (l) and Charles (r) together at last.

Both returned safely to their Potomac Valley hometowns in the Appalachian Mountains near Cumberland, Maryland. Hardly a decade passed before the declining economy in the region forced them to relocate to better job opportunities. Red moved his family to Akron, Ohio and a career with Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Charles took his family to the booming oil industry in Houston, Texas and work in real estate management. Both are gone now, along with their wives, Edith and Dorothy, and contact with the cousins is infrequent these days.

I am not a veteran. I'll never experience how military service shapes a person inside. But I do count many veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf. Afghanistan, Iraq wars and other military operations among my friends.  They taught me more than any book that the cost of freedom is not free.  Each of them paid a very personal price that enables us to enjoy life in this bountiful nation today.  On this, their day of honor, I offer up to all of them my sincerest admiration and thanks for their service.

It's Not The Crime, It's The Cover-Up

We're hearing a lot these days about political lies, deception, and cover-ups after eight years of political lies, deception, and cover-ups that hardly raised an eyebrow in the American "press." When the truth hits a nerve among the populous the consequences can be cleansing as well as painful. Forty-six years ago today the American public finally began to read some truth about their country's involvement in the political struggle of Vietnam from 1945 through mid-1968. It wasn't pretty. In fact, the outrage it, the Kent State murders the year before, and the Watergate scandal in June of 1972 generated, would heighten revolutionary fervor from coast to coast and consume Nixon's presidency in 1974. 

Here is a fine summary of the Pentagon Papers story from history.com:

The New York Times begins to publish sections of the so-called “Pentagon Papers,” a top-secret Department of Defense study of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The papers indicated that the American government had been lying to the people for years about the Vietnam War and the papers seriously damaged the credibility of America’s Cold War foreign policy.

In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered his department to prepare an in-depth history of American involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara had already begun to harbor serious doubts about U.S. policy in Vietnam, and the study–which came to be known as the “Pentagon Papers”–substantiated his misgivings. Top-secret memorandums, reports, and papers indicated that the U.S. government had systematically lied to the American people, deceiving them about American goals and progress in the war in Vietnam. The devastating multi-volume study remained locked away in a Pentagon safe for years. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a Defense Department employee who had turned completely against the war, began to smuggle portions of the papers out of the Pentagon. These papers made their way to the New York Times, and on June 13, 1971, the American public read them in stunned amazement. The publication of the papers added further fuel to the already powerful antiwar movement and drove the administration of President Richard Nixon into a frenzy of paranoia about information “leaks.” Nixon attempted to stop further publication of the papers, but the Supreme Court refused to issue an injunction. 

The “Pentagon Papers” further eroded the American public’s confidence in their nation’s Cold War foreign policy. The brutal, costly, and seemingly endless Vietnam War had already damaged the government’s credibility, and the publication of the “Pentagon Papers” showed people the true extent to which the government had manipulated and lied to them. Some of the most dramatic examples were documents indicating that the Kennedy administration had openly encouraged and participated in the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963; that the CIA believed that the “domino theory” did not actually apply to Asia; and that the heavy American bombing of North Vietnam, contrary to U.S. government pronouncements about its success, was having absolutely no impact on the communists’ will to continue the fight.

There is more at the history.com site here. And thanks to the National Archives and Records Administration you can read the complete report without redactions here.

The Pentagon Papers, June 13, 1971: The Vietnam Nightmare Turns Very Real

Forty-four years ago today the American public finally began to read some truth about their country's involvement in the political struggle of Vietnam from 1945 through mid-1968. It wasn't pretty. In fact the outrage it, the Kent State murders the year before, and the Watergate scandal in June of 1972 would heighten revolutionary fervor from coast to coast and consume Nixon's presidency in 1974.

Here is a fine summary of the Pentagon Papers story from history.com:

The New York Times begins to publish sections of the so-called “Pentagon Papers,” a top-secret Department of Defense study of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The papers indicated that the American government had been lying to the people for years about the Vietnam War and the papers seriously damaged the credibility of America’s Cold War foreign policy. 

In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered his department to prepare an in-depth history of American involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara had already begun to harbor serious doubts about U.S. policy in Vietnam, and the study–which came to be known as the “Pentagon Papers”–substantiated his misgivings. Top-secret memorandums, reports, and papers indicated that the U.S. government had systematically lied to the American people, deceiving them about American goals and progress in the war in Vietnam. The devastating multi-volume study remained locked away in a Pentagon safe for years. In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a Defense Department employee who had turned completely against the war, began to smuggle portions of the papers out of the Pentagon. These papers made their way to the New York Times, and on June 13, 1971, the American public read them in stunned amazement. The publication of the papers added further fuel to the already powerful antiwar movement and drove the administration of President Richard Nixon into a frenzy of paranoia about information “leaks.” Nixon attempted to stop further publication of the papers, but the Supreme Court refused to issue an injunction. 

The “Pentagon Papers” further eroded the American public’s confidence in their nation’s Cold War foreign policy. The brutal, costly, and seemingly endless Vietnam War had already damaged the government’s credibility, and the publication of the “Pentagon Papers” showed people the true extent to which the government had manipulated and lied to them. Some of the most dramatic examples were documents indicating that the Kennedy administration had openly encouraged and participated in the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963; that the CIA believed that the “domino theory” did not actually apply to Asia; and that the heavy American bombing of North Vietnam, contrary to U.S. government pronouncements about its success, was having absolutely no impact on the communists’ will to continue the fight.

There is more at the site here.

On Robert McNamara's Passing

As the architect of the Vietnam War, McNamara was never one of my favorites. I saw only his public side: the slicked "hair helmet," robotic and humorless presentation, and the obsession with statistics. To me, he seemed more likely to be pictured reviewing parades from the Kremlin than prosecuting war in the interest of the free world. He was the kind of personality that made me strive for a centered existence. Of course, there was a private, softer side to McNamara and it emerged years later in his Vietnam mea culpas. Joseph Califano Jr. - one of McNamara's Pentagon "whiz kids" - reflects on the private man in his editorial appearing in today's Washington Post.

I hope Robert McNamara finds the peace that eluded him for much of his life.