The Kent State Murders

They fired with intent to kill.

And kill they did. Four students lost their lives, others were severely injured, with anything from wounds to the extremities to paralysis that would last the rest of their lives, in the most profoundly revealing eruption of a government out of control that occurred in the 1970's.

Although the identities of the National Guardsmen who fired are known, as are the identities of all in the chain of command right on up to the governor (who, on the previous day, proclaimed that he intended to "eradicate the problem" when speaking of the protesters), no criminal or civil action ever resulted in any type of conviction whatsoever in this matter.

Allison Krause

Jeffrey Miller

Sandra Scheuer

William Schroeder

Many Americans from the generations that protested the Vietnam war will never trust the government again. They fear their government now, and with good reason. The government will kill you if you step out of line. It's not a guess. It's not an exaggeration. It's not hyperbole. It's fact, it's history, and it is terrifying for those who consider it clearly. The Kent State massacre and the subsequent cover-ups may have been the most profound political acts of the 1900's for the American government.

Compiler's Note

I was 15 at the time, and the only real feeling I had about the Vietnam war prior to May 4th, 1970 was that the government should get off it's collective ass and win it, because I didn't like the idea that our forces were dying for what I could only see as a "holding action." I was a young patriot; I truly held the patriotic values that are traditional for American citizens. I actually thought when I heard "the rocket's red glare" being sung; I had studied some history, and knew of, and respected, the struggles of America in the two world wars. I personified these struggles in the government, and included in my patriotic appreciation the governmental power structure, as I had been taught to do by countless social functions, history books, and the many black and white war movies I had viewed on the television growing up.

After May 4th, I had learned a sad truth about the government and its domestic enforcement arms. The war in Vietnam was not the only war it was conducting. Here in the US, the government was on one side, and the people were on the other. I never again applied that warm and fuzzy patriotic feeling to the government. Ever. Today, 25 years later, I maintain a respect for the military, a thankfulness for those who gave their lives that I might enjoy a measure of freedom, and a sorrow for all of those who have been sent on wasted missions - such as the Vietnam war - by a government I neither respect, nor hold out any hope for. In my adult years, I have watched the forces of the government massacre people several times - at Ruby Ridge, at Waco. I have observed those holding civil power repeatedly use extreme violence - the Chicago conventions come immediately to mind, as does the beating of Rodney King, something I still can't decide if it was possible to justify - and I believe it is not reasonable to make the assumption that the government or its arms of enforcement are what they claim to be.

The events at Kent State turned the direction of my thinking permanently. The wonder of it, to me, is that the US government was left in place by its citizens. That the people stood and accepted these events inspires a fear in me that the government never could. American citizens were tried, and found wanting.

Four dead in Ohio.

Charles B. Blish

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