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As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.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 ...
Precisely!! That’s what instigators do. That’s why your comments about no student being shot with a gun in their hands is not relevant. All it takes is someone on the periphery setting a spark to the tender.
I agree. Many of my friends served in the National Guard during the 1960's. Their attitude was they were there to disobey and screw-up. It was a different National Guard than today's.
I served my time as active duty. We trained on riot control. We drilled using various formations with fixed bayonets. We were taught there were seven levels of escalation which would warrant increasing the use of force. The seventh level was to shoot live rounds. We were under the impression that such an order was very unlikely.
I'm convinced if active duty soldiers were deployed at Kent, the shootings would not have happened.
That’s quite a leap!
They did have permission to fire back if fired upon and they did. You can believe what you want, I don't know how old you are but I lived through those times and I can tell you it was a planned riot with the purpose of making the military look bad and play into the "get us out of Nam" BS meme.
No, because their intended purpose was served.
Yep. :)
Richard Nixon won re-election in 1972 by a landslide.
horsefeathers,, they wanted a violent revolution where only THEY got to be violent. The snots were asking for it, begging for it, for years.
A LOT of violence and bombings happened on their side first. I think it’s funny how AMAZED they were when the other side fought back.
You should have shoved her down it! And I'm serious.
I lived here in Ohio then, my first 16 years in Ohio. I have been back here for 10 years. Then a co-worker friend who was in the Ohio National Guard told me about things that were not made public at the time - for instance, Guardsmen ‘kneecapped’ with bats or pipe wrenches and other things not published.
I heard it all that day, everything that was on the news. We knew the whole thing was orchestrated by other than ‘students’. And btw, to this day Kent has remained a leftist stronghold.
That is still speculation without recovered bullets and confirming ballistics. Given the released information that other shooters were present, you don't know whose bullets actually hit the students.
I knew it!
:-)
Not a fairy tale. Just saying how different things would have been if different decisions had been made. One follows the other Viet Nam - Jane Fonda - SDS - William Ayers - WeatherUnderground - Code Pink - Obama. All these things are tied together. No Viet Nam or even if it had been delayed a few years - we might not have had the same group of people traveling back and forth to North Viet Name, Cuba and Soviet Union. Even three years later and Boudin might not have been so gung-ho about the Soviets... Not a fairy tale, just considering the possibilities and how we take actions and don’t realize how it can change everything.
“Riots had been going on for the previous few years and from what I saw there was a command failure.”
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My DH, just back from Nam was flown to DC during those riots in the circle but they weren’t allowed to have ammo.
your tea party analogy might make sense if the tea party wasn’t gradmothers, normal people, and children,,,,with no record of violence, bombings, arson, and murder, calling for the violent overthrow of the government. Silly silly analogy.
The American Vietnam mistake began by having our, by revolution, free and independent ex-colonial nation, save Europes colonialists time and again.
Thereupon we were morally forced to attempt to save their rotten systems for noble reasons, and embraced defeat.
Okay, let me put it another way, if William Ayers had never been born, Obama wouldn’t be President right now - does that work for you?
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