Kent State Killings

Introduction

On 4 May, 1970 National Guardsmen shot and killed four students for no apparent reason in the U.S. state of Ohio, who were protesting against the invasion by U.S. troops in Cambodia. The Kent State massacre shocked America, and it was the beginning of the end of President Richard Nixon. Soldiers saw the cause of fear for the National Guard, on 4 May 1970 on the campus of State University marching in the U.S. state of Ohio (O'connor). They wore black uniforms and masks to protect against tear gas, they would missed, and the management of the University distributed leaflets banning all demonstrations in campus.

The National Guard tried to disperse a few hundred students who did not take the right to demonstrate against the invasion by U.S. troops in Cambodia. A group of around 70 soldiers marched first to the protesters, but then withdrew - after protesters threw a few stones in their direction - back to a small hill. Up to this time there was a confrontation between demonstrators and security forces, as in 1970, as part of worldwide protests against the Vietnam War, was nothing unusual. But no sooner had the National Guard reach the pass, something incredible happened. 28 of them turned and began to shoot rifles and pistols on the students. Within 13 seconds, they gave off about 60 shots - and they did not shoot blanks, as the students believed (Beckman). When they stopped firing, four students were dying on the floor, 13 were wounded.

"Four Dead In Ohio"

the Kent State massacre followed the largest strikes by students in American history. When rock musician Neil Young saw the cover of "Time" magazine with the photo of a dead student lying in his blood, he spontaneously wrote a song titled "Ohio". He began with the lines: "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming own, we are finally on our This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio” (Kneeland).

Richard Nixon was the man against whom the protests of students and other opponents of the war in Vietnam in particular. The Republicans had won in the fall of 1968 the presidential election partly because he had promised withdrawal of U.S. troops from Indochina. But along with his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, he pursued a contradictory policy. As revealed later in the wake of Watergate, was Nixon allowed the U.S. Air Force in March 1969 (Beckman), under the utmost secrecy to bomb neutral Cambodia. In April 1970, he then sent troops into South Vietnam from the neighboring country. Try their North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong off, who had retreated to the border region.

On the evening of 30 Nixon turned to April 1970 with a live television and radio transmitted speech to "my fellow Americans." As a teacher he tried using a long pointer and a map of Cambodia demonstrate that the invasion was necessary "to protect our men in Vietnam and to guarantee the continued success of our withdrawal and the ...