Posted on 05/03/2010 6:27:24 PM PDT by jazusamo
Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.
As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.
The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.
Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.
An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets — the worst in Kent's history — was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."
But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation — never before reported — between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.
"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."
The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Hopefully, your older brother has gained the wisdom of his father through the years. ; )
I couldn’t agree more. The FBI should have come out and made all the investigation known as it took place.
These Guardsmen were crucified and guilty in the eyes of many, and unjustly.
The protesting and rioting in many areas of the country was not put across to the public like it should have been by authorities as unjustified anarchism.
My thanks to your uncle for serving. I was a teenager at the time so I do remember the incident. The Guard was put into a very bad situation. Nothing good was going to come of it. With SDS, the Weather Underground and other subversive communist movements involved, someone was going to get injured or killed.
Too bad it had to be someone innocent.
Bravo!
Ditto here, although not at Ohio State.
Ever wonder what creates independent thinking adults, vs 50-yr-old adolescents?
All other facts aside, it was my opinion then and now that the Guardsmen were poorly trained and led. Riots had been going on for the previous few years and from what I saw there was a command failure.
Days of major rioting, attacks on cops and firefighters are conveniently ignored.
The shots that killed the students were warning shots fired OVER the bad guys heads. Maybe the National Guard didn’t notice that the ground goes higher back there.
My mom said the same thing at the time. I’m from Cleveland.
Rudd had spent seven hours on the Purdue campus pitching his recruitment before various groups from 5,000 to a living room.
Many three-car-plus-wagon convoys, platoons of pigeon-blue helmets, knots of Dick Tracy's around walkie talkies, the Chicago Tactical Squad, and a crowd of presumed off-duty or undercover Chicago cops looking for a little ultraviolence.
The army surplus in red-armbands broke windows and took refuge in churches.
Ayers followed with bombs. Is it too great a leap to foresee he would use provocateurs?
And now, behold, "meet the new boss, the same as the old boss"--the punks run the show.
And the Maoists in the new administration were mute when the PLA killed 2,000 in the 140 locations associated with the "Tiananmen Square" massacre of June 3-4, 1989.
Not to mention the abomination of Waco and the highly suspicious OKCBomb.
Today the groundwork is being laid for the Nuclear Freeze the Columbian Kenyan wanted.
And Bill Ayers cheers Hugo Chavez, "Viva la revolucion bolivariana!"
Where was all that bleating when Neda was shot by agents of Hussein's beloved Rat Boy.
And all of that was to protest a Cambodian pursuit of an enemy hitherto allowed sanctuary by the previous president more intent on his six-trillion-dollar war on something or other--
Would not two million Cambodians have preferred a little help--do their voices not call from beyond.
The left cannot think from one sentence to the next, but must follow the next passing demagogue.
Every expunged or censored word will eventually resound from mountaintop to mountaintop.
I wonder if the burn outs known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young will apologize for causing anti-American hatred in their misguided, one sided anthem, “Ohio”? (Sound of crickets)
For a matter of fact I have on two occasions. For some silly reason I didn't get a 30-06 and kill the person.
Jeff Cooper firearms rule number four.
Exactly, and it's sad.
The unfortunate outcome was that the guards apparently didn’t shoot directly at the trouble makers, but shot over their heads instead, killing people farther back rather than the ones causing the problems in the first place. I mean, if you’re going to go through the trouble of discharging a firearm, aim at the bad guys, not over their heads.” Agreed
I agree that something spooked the guards and that set off the shooting. It was a serious mistake to put National Guardsmen, armed with M1’s into a riot control situation for which they were not trained and ill equipped. I don't put a lot of stock in FBI reports, especially 40 years after the incident. Too often the Feds arrive at the conclusion first, then investigate until they find facts to support their predetermined theory. JFK?
It's not unusual to have hundreds of conflicting “witness” statements. Where is the ballistic evidence?
That's certainly possible.Even if some (or even many) of the Guardsmen had real experience in,say,Vietnam I would think that that wouldn't qualify them to handle a riot.My feeling is that handling riots requires a very special kind of training and back then the National Guard was known pretty much to be a joke.
Lord knows, the way we fought the war sucked. Frankly we should have just rolled our tanks right into downtown Hanoi and publicly hanged Ho Chi Minh, it would have been all over by 1964.
Vietnam showed the Soviet Union, that they were not going to take the rest of the world without a fight from us. Vietnam was a battle in a much larger war, a war we ultimately won, because of our fight there. The deaths were not in vain.
How about government buildings being bombed by an adviser to the POTUS? Do you doubt that as well?
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