Kent State: The Taciturn of Political Dissent?

America is a country that is founded on political dissent and Americans have always had the illusion of free speech. But at what price does that freedom come by? How high emotions can run equates with the consequences of our actions. Sit-ins, breaking windows, and even arson, it all builds up to something uncontrollable.; fear from both sides, the people and the government. When does it become more than just sit-ins and picketing? When burning draft cards and chanting escalates in an already emotionally charged atmosphere? The Kent State shootings led to an escalation of student protest and changed the nature of political dissent to a far more adversarial, and non trusting “us versus them” mentality.

What was thought to be just another anti war college protest turned into something much more sinister. On Monday, May 4, 1970 the Ohio National Guard shot 13 students at Kent State University. Four were killed, nine wounded. One of the most shocking facts included is that two of the students killed had nothing to do with the protest. In the days leading up to the massacre, the ROTC building had been burned down (Barry 4) and in many other preceding protests the students were tear gassed. At one point students attempted to go to President White's house but the national guard intervened. The national guard and police struggled to keep peace and maintain order and though these shootings weren't justified, there was a lot of arson and organized groups on campus causing anarchy. The most startling question remained. Why the shots were fired. With students shot and killed over a hundred feet away and some wounded over 300 feet, it was a wonder if the guardsmen were truly scared for their lives or if emotions were running high and purely accidental. The stories changed but ultimately it ended in eight of the guardsmen being indicted by a grand jury and the claim that they fired in self defense. The defendants agreed they regretted their actions saying “the shootings were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.”(Gale 2). With students throughout America, burning flags, tearing down buildings, radical behavior, it is expected that things would spiral out of control. The national guard panicked, viewing the situation as desperate. The circumstances around the incident are shocking, in one instance, a guardsmen couldn't get his gas mask on over his glasses “there was a guy out there who could hardly see, blasting away with an M-I”. (Grace 3)

Schools throughout America were up in arms, the Kent State incident led to a large scale protest, the only nationwide student strike in history. Campuses closed, and millions of students gathered in violent and non violent protesting to the shootings. Soon the nation was at war with itself, the youth against the government and anyone who agreed with their decisions immediately became an enemy. The us versus them mentality became extremely prevalent and students saw their country in a different light, a new government willing to kill dissenters, students shouted “Like they did at Kent! You want to kill us all”(Caputo 9) An escalation happened with that mindset, 100,000 students gathered in Washington in mobs, smashing cars, throwing rocks, etc. People suddenly felt like outsiders, seeing these protests as a civil war. This shouldn't be something associated with America, this is typical of an event in a Socialist country. Students weren't just protesting the war anymore, they saw that the government crushed dissent with a heavy hand and now there was distrust on both sides. America became divided.

With photographs of the dead and injured at Kent State flooding newspapers, magazines. There was amplified sentiment of the U.S invasion of Cambodia. The illustrious, Pulitzer prize winning photo of a young girl screaming over the dead is still one of the most enduring images of the anti war