Kent State Shooting Research Paper

On May 4, 1970, the shooting on the Kent State campus took place. The National guard shooting of the students at Kent State University occurred as a result of the students protesting the bombing of Cambodia, which caused the war to expand. The U.S president Nixon sent troops into Cambodia after he promised to withdraw them from Vietnam. On April 30, 1970, when Nixon gave a speech announcing the invasion of Cambodia, anti-war factions rose up across the United States. The speech caused a significant reaction from the American college student population and led into great controversy and heated debates.On May 2, 1970, several unknown students burnt down the ROTC building, which directly caused the military actions they were so vehemently protesting against. Also, more than a thousand protesters gathered

around the building and cheered its burning. While attempting to extinguish the fire, several Kent firemen and police officers were hit with rocks and other objects by those standing near the fire. These acts caused Governor James Rhodes to send the Ohio National Guard troops to the campus to defuse the situation.

After that on May 4th, four students were killed and nine were injured in this event and this caused a confrontation between the National Guard and group of students. There was a debate from two main perspectives: the government and the students.The government believed that the guardsmen fired in self-defense, and the shootings were therefore justified. But the students disagreed with this statement, they thought that the guardsmen were not in immediate danger, and therefore the shootings were unjustified.This event was called Kent State massacre, also known as the May 4th massacre.

The perspective from the students is that there was no immediate danger, therefore the shootings were unjustified. According to John Cleary, who was one of the nine injured students, and a person very much against the war, he still feels that the guards had no reason to fire upon the students. Students do not think their action was wrong. They were not supporting invasion in Cambodia and wanted to express their thoughts by protesting. So the guardsmen had no reason to shoot them and stop them unless the national government

ordered them to do so, which would have been an easy way to dismiss the rally. He believes the reason behind the shooting stems from Governor James Rhodes’s panic aroused by their action, which led him to send the Ohio National Guard troops to the campus to attempt to defuse the situation. Many students across the country at other universities became outraged, scared, worried and saddened because they didn’t think that guardsmen would just start shooting into a crowd of unarmed students in broad daylight on a sunny Spring afternoon. Recent evidence shows a Strubbe tape which is provided by a student who was at campus when the shootings occurred. Students try to use it to prove that the national guards were commanded to fire. If there was no order to fire, the guardsmen should not have aimed their guns at the students, because when someone’s aiming a gun at you with his fingers on the triggers, you definitely think that your life may be in danger which explained why the students were made angrier and more fearful, causing them to behave in an aggressive and antisocial way. It was evident in the way they threw the stones at the guardsmen. “As this student fell behind the car, I saw another student go down, next to the curb, on the far side of the automobile, maybe 25 or 30 yards from where I was lying. It was maybe 25, 30, 35 seconds of sporadic firing.” said by a unidentified eyewitness speaker. The guardsmen indiscriminately shot into a crowd of students in 35 seconds and it shows that they didn’t have exact goals to shoot, meaning that it wasn’t a specific person who threatened their life safety. Or in other words, their so-called legitimate self-defense might not have been needed in this case. So even if the guardsman's behavior cannot find sufficient evidence to support the conspiracy theory, nor can it find proof that the guardsmen fired in self-defence, they might have fired on command to crack down the students' action.

When the firing stopped and the smoke cleared, four students were killed. Two were a part of the protest and the other two were on their way to class. According to Scott MacKenzie, who was one of the nine injured students, he said he still confused as to why he was shot on that day. During that time, he was just walking across campus from class. This means MacKenzie was not involved in the protest at all and there neither danger environment nor violent accident around him, however he still being shoot that manifested the untruth of guardsman's statement which is they said they fired in self-defense. On the one hand, some protesters believed that they were right in continuing their mass protest in response to the Cambodian invasion, they have freedom of speech thus, they ignore the suppressed of the national grands and they think the guardsman are seen as trouble maker because there no immediate danger that lead them to shooting the unarmed students. But on the other hand, some student think it's none of their business and have no opinion on this matter. They just don't want guardsmen around the college watching and control them daily school life thus they protested. Students think the gun was loaded with blanks when the national guards arrived. They thought mayor Satrom was fearful that local forces would be inadequate to meet the potential disturbances therefore, he make an official request for assistance from the Ohio National Guard. But when 28 guardsman shoot in unison, they initial assumptions changed. What is more, before the Kent State Shooting occurred, the local police once using tear gas to disperse the crowd from downtown which is an ordered by national government and forcing them to move protesters back to the campus and increases the size of angry crowd therefore most protester at Kent State who has witnessed the incident believed that there was an order given to fire at 4th of May.

On the other hand, the authorities said it was a messy situation during that time and they could not control the situation as they thought they were in immediate danger. This built a tension between the students and the Guardsmen and it led the guardsmen to fire in self-defense. The national guards claimed they were not liable for the shooting. According to Snyder, who was one of the guardsmen, he said “I knew specifically that Major Jones would have never ever said anything like that. The only thing I could out was going on was somebody somehow was trying to put their personal interpretation in there” The government claimed that there was no order to fire at Kent State. They said there would be a proper terminology if was by order. “Ready, Aim, Fire” something like this. This means that even someone heard something in the Strubbe tape, it can’t be evidence to prove the order given by government. Moreover, they added that “the Guard fell under attack from the students” which means that there were in immediate danger and wanted to protect themselves. The government also claimed that there was more than a football field away while the Kent State student protesters swore, raised their middle fingers, and threw pebbles and stones and empty tear gas canisters on the guardsmen and police cars. When a National Guard jeep drove onto the Commons and an officer ordered the crowd to disperse, three or four youths ran to the smoking canisters and hurled them back. Most fell far short, however one landed near the troops and a cheer went up from the crowd, which was chanting "Pigs off campus" and cursing the war. A few protesters in the front of the crowd ran into the parking lot and hurled stones or small chunks of pavement in the direction of the guardsmen. According to Guardsman, they felt the action of some students were violent and criminal and those of some others were dangerous, reckless and irresponsible, then the troop began moving back up the hill in the direction of the college and tried to stop the assault. He said he was kind of disappointed that people of so-called academic status would take such an aggressive stance to National Guardsmen doing their duty, doing what they had been requested to do. Guardsmen ordered the demonstrators to disperse, they followed students and soon they found themselves some what trapped on the practice football field because it was surrounded by a fence. Students yelling and rock throwing constantly as the guardsmen felt panic thus, 28 guardsman fired in self-defence without any order.

In order to understand what really happened on May 4 in Kent State University, both students’ and guardsman’s perspectives should be considered. Students thought there was an order given to fire the unarmed protesters however, the national guard believed that they fired in self-defense. After 45 years, whether or not there has been a command to fire remains a point of contention. Nobody can tell which perspective was absolutely right because there were no clear evidence to indicate which one was more convincing. But as time goes on, some hidden facts are likely to come to light and some stronger evidence may also be exposed one day. As a result, we will have more to add to the conclusion of this event. But until that day, we have no way of telling which side is more justified.