Aftermath

The Kent State shootings were all over the news and people were appalled that anything like this could have happened. Hundreds of university campuses began protesting after the shootings at Kent State. Thousands of people went to Washington D.C. to protest the invasion of Cambodia and the shootings of the students. The Kent State shootings caused the largest student protest in America and caused hundreds of campuses to close for as along as a few weeks.

The Students That Were Killed on May 4th

A Student Cries Over the Body of her Friend

May 4, 1970

Although the National Guards were on campus and showed the students they weren't afraid to use force, it didn't stop the students from protesting what they believe is wrong. The students kept up their protests and gathered in the commons. They were told to break up the gathering by the National Guards, but the students refused to move. They began to shout at the Guards when they were ordered to seperate the group. Most of the group was made of protesters, but there were a lot of students just passing by to get to their next classes. The Guards began to march towards to students with their guns, which frightened the students. The Guards pushed the students to the football field using tear gas and occasionaly clubbing a few students. The students attacked back by throwing stones at the Guards, however the stones did no harm to the Guards because the stones never reached them. The Guards were told to retreat back to the commons, and as the Guards were walking away they all turned around and began firing at the students. According to the court case there was a verbal command for the National Guards to fire at the students. The Guards killed four students, and injured nine, a few of the students that were hit by the bullets were just passing by to get to their classes. This day is also called the May 4th massacre.

Protestors On Campus

May 3, 1970

The governor of Ohio, James Rhodes, sent the National Guard to the Kent State University campus. Rhodes sent them there in hopes to settle down the protestors and keep everything under control. The students resented the guards, and the guards resented the students, which made the over all mood on the campus malicious. Rhodes visited the campus to deliver a speech. In his speech he talked about how the students who were protesting were attempting to destroy the education system in Ohio. Rhodes declared that these students were worst than communists and that he will do everything in his ability to drive them off of the Kent State University campus. The students were outraged and began planning another riot near the Commons. During this the National Guards received permission to shoot if necessary. This gave the Guards confidence that they would be able to control the riots. The crowd of students at the Commons were told to disperse because the Guards initiated a curfew for all of them. The students didn't go easily, which allowed the Guards to enforce their orders and throw tear gas into the crowd. The Guards also clubbed some students who weren't obeying the orders. Once the students were all prodded back into their dorms, helicopters were flying over head to make sure no students were out past their curfew.

ROTC On Fire

May 2, 1970

After the riots in the streets, the police and some students helped clean up the downtown area. While they were there, rumors began spreading about attacking the ROTC. The ROTC is the Reserve Officer Training Corp on the Kent State campus. Since the Vietnam war started, many university students in America tried to get the ROTC off their campus. Since the rumors were spread and were taken seriously, the university placed a curfew on the students and made them stay on campus at all times. At night, students met at the Commons and started marching towards the ROTC. On their march they collected many more students to join in on the torching of the ROTC. They broke a few windows on the building and then set it on fire. Police were near the ROTC and saw it burst up in flames, but they made no attempt to stop the students. The police waited until the firefighters arrived to take care of the hazardous situation. When the firefighters arrived, the students began to slash their hoses and tried to keep them away from the ROTC until the building completely burned to the ground. The students weren't counting on the police to get involved, however the police began throwing tear gas into the crowd for it to disperse, allowing the firefighters to get to the burning ROTC building. The students retreated back to the Commons to watch the building burn to the ground.

Students on the Kent State Campus

May 1, 1970

On May 1, 1970 at Kent State University's campus, the protestors against the war met near the Commons and buried a copy of the Constitution. They buried it because they said it was "dead" when the American soldiers were ordered to invade Cambodia without a proper declaration of war from Congress. Later in the evening the protestors went to a bar and began protesting in the streets. When cop cars drove by the anti-war protestors threw beer bottles at them. The protestors caused the police to avoid the bar area where the rally was being held. Once the rally at the bar ended, the students created a fire in the street and began breaking windows that belonged to "political people". For example banks were vandalized and so were utility buildings. The Kent police began to realize that they needed to take action. They declared a "state of emergency" and cleared out all the bars that they suspected would have protests. The police faced the crowd of protestors and drove them back to the University's campus using force. They pepper-sprayed the students and used their knight sticks in order to "safely" get the students back. At the end of the night the police ended up arresting a couple of people, which were mainly homeless people that were caught up in the anti-war crowd. Thousands of dollars of damage was caused that night because of all the vandalizm  the protestors did.

Nixon's Mistake

After Nixon made his speech on national television about the invasion of Cambodia, university students began protesting it. Nixon heard about the protests and how the students were burning books and trashing their campuses. Nixon was outraged and made a speech about how these "bums" are throwing away their futures by burning books and trashing everything. When Nixon called the university students bums, this outraged the Kent State University students in Ohio and caused their protests to become violent.

Nixon Discussing the Invasion of Cambodia

Invading Cambodia

In the mid-1970's, Nixon went on national television and announced the invasion of Cambodia. He said he was going to send troops to Cambodia to defeat the Viet Cong bases in order to stop the spread of communism to South Vietnam. This upset many American citizens because they felt there was no need to invade Cambodia.

Vietnamization

Richard Nixon took action by ordering Vietnamization to take place to stop the high amount of American soldier casualties. Vietnamization is the process where Nixon withdraws American soldiers gradually from Vietnam. With Vietnamization, Nixon hopes to have the South Vietnamese army take over most of the war. Nixon didn't want to withdraw all the soldiers because the South Vietnamese wouldn't be able to defend themselves against the Viet Congs. He made Vietnamization because it will allow the South Vietnamese army to get used to defending itself without that much help from American forces.

Richard Nixon Elected in 1969

Nixon became the 37th president of the United States when he was elected in 1969. Nixon was aware that hundreds of American soldiers were dying in Vietnam almost every week. He realized he had to do something in order to save the soldiers lives.

Richard Nixon

What Happened? (Summary)

Richard Nixon became in charge of the issues during the Vietnam War in 1969. There were thousands of troops in Vietnam that were struggling to stay alive. Nixon knew that it would be nearly impossible to "win" the war and he didn't want to upset the public by making the war escalate but he didn't want to completely withdraw. Nixon decided to withdraw 150,000 troops from Vietnam in 1971. Later after he publicly announced he was going to withdraw troops, he announced the invasion of Cambodia. Nixon was making the American and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia in order to wipe out the sanctuaries that were being used by the North Vietnamese. After Nixon's announcement about invading Cambodia, Kent State University in Ohio had many students protesting about this. In their protests they burned down the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corp). This angered the Governor of Ohio who, in response to the burned down ROTC, had the National Guard go to Kent State University to help control the protests. The National Guard began shooting into the crowd where the protesters were which managed to kill 4 students and injure 9 others. After this incident called the May 4th shootings, universities all over America began protesting. The protests caused universities to close down for as long as a year. The Kent State incident angered many Americans, causing riots all across the country.