Kent State: What Happened and Why was a very personal, private reading experience. Raised and educated in Ohio, my father was an Army MP in the Ohio National Guard. My father’s twin brother was also an MP.
During that weekend, my father’s unit based in Toledo was called up by Governor James Rhodes.
At the time of the shooting my grandmother who was in failing health was overcome by the initial, inaccurate reports that Ohio guardsmen were shot and killed. She died that day. I was only four years of age when my grandmother passed away.
In the spring of 1970 the war in Vietnam, waging since 1959 spread into Cambodia.
The US Military began limited expansion into Cambodia which came as a shock to many Americans.
President Nixon announced Thursday April 30th the incursions by US troops into Cambodia to find enemy supplies and troops. This event drove a further wedge in America still coming to terms with the My Lai massacre the previous November.
As author James Michener followed the timeline of events, he quoted Roy Thomson, Kent’s Chief of Police that same day as stating “Kent is exceedingly fortunate in that most of the 20,000 students at Kent State University are well balanced.” Could anyone have predicted the tragedy that was to unfold?
The following day, Friday May 1st student protesters buried a copy of the US Constitution at the campus Victory Bell. Students were joined on campus by many anti war activists (non-students) who traveled around the country stirring the anti-war movement. Yippee Jerry Rubin spoke at Kent State just two weeks before Nixon’s address at the same time as NASA’s Apollo 13 returned safely to earth April 17th. Friday night downtown Kent was engulfed in rioting. Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency and called the Governor requesting National Guard troops.
Saturday evening protesters struck on campus as they burned Kent State’s ROTC building to the ground. This event triggered tensions to unbelievable heights between students, protesters and the university administration, Kent Mayor, Ohio Governor and the ROTC. Michener implies accurately that anti-war protesters burned the ROTC building. Kent students were at the protest. Today evidence and testimony supports his book. Even local high school students participated in the burning of the ROTC building. Arson charges were never filed.
I found a powerful, stirring audio account of the events. It actually includes gunfire from the guardsmen. This series of recordings was most helpful in setting the audio tone of Kent’s campus. It revealed helicopters flying around campus. Photos from KSU’s library includes night photography with helicopters flying overhead. The campus must have had a feeling of a closed, overcrowded prison with helicopters and armed guardsmen, tanks and jeeps surrounding the campus. The tension was hyper-inflated by the presence of anti war protesters, misleading statements from leaders acting on behalf of themselves while purposefully misleading law enforcement officials when attempting to help control protesters around campus.
But the most stirring image of the tragedy was that of a 14 year old girl, Mary Vecchioa leaning over the body of Jeff Miller sent around the world as described by Michener’s closing chapter “The girl with the Delacroix face” which revealed at length her runaway life. Panhandling at various locations after running away from home she only dreamed of getting to California. He brought to light how she spent time with other protesters, moving around the country, and how non student groups made strong protests at many colleges.
Colleges and universities around the country shut down following the shooting. Many students flooded Washington DC to protest. Nixon was pressed to end the war he promised he could in the presidential campaign of 1968.
James Michener’s book has been highly publicized and criticized for inaccurate journalism. He was published less than a year of the shooting. How long does it take to produce a hardcover book? This production process, count backwards to see a tight timeline for Michener’s work. It left me with a feeling he could not have objectively recorded a full understanding of the events at Kent in such a short time. What was missing? Guardsmen reported that in addition to rocks and bricks protesters threw bags of urine and feces. The audio recording mentioned above has segments of student and protesters chanting “Sieg Heil” repeatedly. Tensions were running extreme on all sides that day.
While the many photographs of the Kent four are innocent in nature, the roles of Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder were truly tragic mistakes. However Allison Krause and Jeff Miller were very active in the protests that weekend. This does not justify their killing by any stretch, but Michener does relay to the reader their involvement supporting the intimidation of the Guardsmen.
This image is more chilling than the photo of Mary Vecchioa:
In a hail of gunfire students and protesters running for their lives as guardsmen aimed in this direction, into the student parking lot where all four students were killed.