KENT STATE SHOOTiNG
Four students were killed and and nine were injured on May 4, 1970 when the Ohio National Guard fired into a group of Kent State students. The students were upset about the continued Vietnam War. On April 30, 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the American invasion of Cambodia. He announced this news on television, saying "We take these actions not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam, and winning the just peace we all desire." America was tired of hearing the same speech. The National Guard was called by the Kent Mayor on May 2, after vandalism and looting in local bars and stores at night May 3. When the National Guard got there on May 2, there was a protest going on on the campus. The Reserve Officer Training Corps was on fire, and protesters were throwing rocks and other objects at the Kent policemen and firemen. On May 3, The Guard issued a curfew on students and forced them back into their dorms after they moved their protest off the campus and onto the streets. 10 guardsmen were injured as well as a few students. On May 4, an estimated 2,000 students gathered to protest which was sceduled at noon. The Guard came in twice before noon and told the growing crowd to leave. When the crowd refused to disperse and continued throwing rocks at the Guard, they used tear gas to disperse the crowd, then A Company Troop G marched with their bayonets pointed at the students. The point was to scare them off, and it worked for the most part. Many of the students left. The students that remained though, were angry and continued to attack the Guard. The Guard began marching back, then turned and fired not at the nearest students, but at farther students, in the ground, or in the air. 4 students were killed and 9 were injured in this shooting.The Kent State Shootings resulted in a nation-wide protest. A student strike of about 8 million students forced many universities, colleges and high schools to close. The event slide right national chaos, as the country became more outraged at the AMerican government and military.
Picture: http://windward.hawaii.edu/facstaff/nuckols-j/KentState.jpg
