“The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre) were the killing of four and wounding of nine unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State University campus.”

A few days prior President Nixon said, “You see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are burning up the books, storming around this issue. You name it. Get rid of the war there will be another one.”

On the state level, “an emotional Governor Rhodes pounded on the desk, which can be heard in the recording of his speech. He called the student protesters un-American, referring to them as revolutionaries set on destroying higher education in Ohio.”

In 5 days we’ll see the 54th anniversary of students shot on a US University campus for protesting US involvement in the Vietnam War, the draft, and expansion of hostilities into Cambodia.

In subsequent trials 8 of 28 National Guard shooters were charged but acquitted. However the judge made sure to note that, “It is vital that state and National Guard officials not regard this decision as authorizing or approving the use of force against demonstrators, whatever the occasion of the issue involved. Such use of force is, and was, deplorable.”