1970 Kent State shootings become enduring history lesson
Forty springs ago, on the day the Vietnam War came home as it never had before, Mary Ann Vecchio was there. She's the girl in the haunting photo — crying, kneeling over the student's body.In school I read James Michener's Kent State: What Happened and Why. I recommend it, if you can find a copy. On Amazon used copies are almost $70 for a hardcover, $15 for paperback (and I'm not entirely sure where mine is).
That was Kent State University, May 4, 1970, a few days after Richard Nixon, who'd campaigned for president on an implicit promise to end the war, widened it by invading Cambodia.
Across the nation, students protested. At Kent State, where two days earlier the ROTC building was burned down, National Guardsmen fired into a crowd and killed four unarmed students, the closest of whom was nearly a football field away....
In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsmen got off 61 to 67 shots. (Some fired into the ground or the air; 48 Guardsmen did not shoot at all, according to the FBI.)
Vecchio found Jeff Miller, whom she'd gotten to know over the past few days, bleeding to death. There was nothing she could do. She screamed, "Oh my God!"
Also killed: protester Allison Krause; Bill Schroeder, an ROTC student who'd been watching the protest and was shot in the back; and Sandy Scheuer, who was walking to class.
Nine students were wounded. One, Dean Kahler, was shot in the back as he lay on the ground. The bullet left him paralyzed for life. Another, Alan Canfora, ducked behind an oak tree as a bullet passed through his right wrist.
Canfora says today that after the Cambodia invasion, "We wanted to bring the war home. But we never expected that."
For more on the events of May 4, 1970, check out the Wikipedia article on the Kent State shootings. The shootings are commemorated on May 4th at the university. Check out the Kent State website for more information.
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