I was a freshman in college at a similar sized midwestern school when this happened. The anti war crowd that started all this foolishness had been on our campus a couple of days before, but found our student body to be too pacifist for their liking. The tried to hold a rally on the commons area in the center of the old campus, but most people just stopped for a couple of minutes and went on to class. I guess they found a more receptive crowd and KSU. It was Spring and the weather was absolutely beautiful that weekend so I imagine a lot of the students were just in the mood to be rowdy. There was some rioting and burning in town the night before, hence the calling in of the NG. Your description of the students as a bunch of hippies is really not very accurate. They were mostly small town college kids who allowed themselves to get riled up by some antiwar professionals and then found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun manned by a kid probably their age. To my knowledge there was very little if any rocks and bottles being throw on May 4 though there was a confrontation on campus. Some reports said a shot was fired at the NG, but nobody can confirm that.
Anyway the antiwar people got what they wanted in one sense, but not in another. They got “Nixon and his tin soldiers” as the song says to fire on and kill American college kids in the heartland, but instead of campuses going up in flames for the most part it was the death knell of the antiwar protest on most campuses. Protesting was a fun way to let off steam in the Spring time when know one was getting hurt, it was viewed very differently after May 4.
What did come out of the KS shootings was a change in the attitude of many parents and adults. All of a sudden the war and the protests over it were being brought home to them in stark terms. They started to ask more questions about the war and about America’s leadership. The Left picked up on that and with the help of the Media slowly, but surely turned the people against the war.
As I said I was a freshman in college at the time. I was not a member of the antiwar crowd, though I did believe we needed to change our tactics and start doing what was necessary to win the thing and get it over with. I lost 4 friends in Vietnam and went to all their funerals. What I remember most about that day was the stunned silence of those on campus as they heard the news. My girlfriend later wife and I were coming back from a walk. When we got back to the dorm everyone was just standing around whispering. She asked one of the grad students what was going on. He told her the NG had shot and killed students at Kent State that afternoon. We knew little about KS other than it was a school similar to ours and was in our athletic conference. My reaction, like I am sure many others, was “what do you mean they shot and killed kids at Kent State?” We then joined in that same wondering, questioning, soul-searching silence that was creeping across our small midwestern campus.
My mom and dad’s generation had Pearl Harbor, those between my parents and me had JFK’s assassination and for people my age, at least college kids my age, we will always remember where we were when we heard about Kent State.
I don't know about the Ohio NG but the Mass NG was filled with draft dodgers who shouldn't have been issued weapons, I was just back from VN at the time.
“They were mostly small town college kids who allowed themselves to get riled up by some antiwar professionals.... Protesting was a fun way to let off steam in the Spring time when know one was getting hurt, it was viewed very differently after May 4.”
Thank you for your inside view - and it looks like you know your history as well. I think the National Guard building was torched by the “professional” antiwar folks along with some of the buildings downtown as I recall from my reading of events years ago.