The Kent State Massacre At 41: Will The Full Truth Ever Be Known?
Today marks the 41th anniversary of the murder of four antiwar protesters at the hands of Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University, but the full truth of this seminal event still is not known and may never be.
The major lingering question is whether the guardsmen, who fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, were ordered to open fire on the more than 1,000 people, who were protesting the U.S. invasion of Cambodia for the third straight day, or whether they believed that they were being fired on by a sniper, the story promoted by Ohio Governor James Rhodes but never confirmed.
Rhodes had ordered the guardsmen to the campus after the university’s ROTC building was set afire and rocks were thrown at police and firemen.
That question may now be answered because an audio recording of the moments before the guardsmen opened fire with their M1 rifles has been professionally analyzed to try to determine if an order to fire is audible. It is.
The recording was made by a Kent State communications student who set the microphone of his reel-to-reel tape recorder on the windowsill of his dormitory room before he went outside to watch the protest.
The analysis shows that the apparent order for the guardsmen to fire, as well as passage of more than a minute between the last supposed pistol shot and the Guard’s gunshots, raises doubts about a connection between the two events. This lends credence to the view that they did not believe they were being fired on but responded to an order to fire on the protesters.
14 Responses to “The Kent State Massacre At 41: Will The Full Truth Ever Be Known?”
Had those students been allowed to carry concealed weapons, they would have been able to defend themselves and the massacre would not have occurred…
[...] rifles has been professionally analyzed to try to determine if an order to fire is audible. It is.Full Article /* Share and [...]
Will some people never Move On?
“Will some people never Move on?” – DLS
The suggestion that we should ignore the important learning opportunities history affords us is counterproductive – to say the least.
I think it is simply a desire to affix blame, which is a reasonable goal in itself, as people should be held accountable for their actions.
But what is the ‘important learning opportunity history affords us’ that are you trying to learn here? I see none.
But what is the ‘important learning opportunity history affords us’ that are you trying to learn here? I see none.
(1.) A university is not a medieval institution, but rather a place where differences of opinion are to be engendered and not shouted or shot down.
(2.) While state National Guards are tasked with keeping the peace, whether after natural disasters or during protests, they must be adequately trained to avoid needless bloodshed.
(3.) Life is precious.
Want more?
I was 18 at the time and a senior in high school. One aspect of this event always troubled me. Over and over I heard cries from the students that “they weren’t supposed to have bullets in their guns”. I wish that had been the case but if that was the student’s belief weren’t they attacking people they believed had no ability to defend themselves? They did not hesitate to throw bricks, bottles, stones at the guardsmen they believed were symbolic of our military and did so thinking they were essentially unarmed. I’ve always wondered-what does that say about the protesters?
ronstclair:
Although I believe that those four students were massacred, it beggars belief to suggest that the Guardsmen should not have been carrying loaded weapons.
As to the crux of your argument, the protesters — as they typically were in those days — were a mixed bag: some hard heads, some people caught up in the moment, but mostly peaceably assembled.
“The Kent State Massacre At 41: Will The Full Truth Ever Be Known?”
No doubt would have been a relevant topic at 1. However, I believe every National Guard unit now receives training and drills in civilian crowd control methods annually. The routine involves donning riot gear which precludes the carrying of rifles, therefore, it would be a logistical impossibility to repeat the scenario of Kent State.
As to the “cover-up” notion, I have forwarded your post to Oliver Stone’s people for consideration.
casualobserver:
I certainly do not claim there was a cover-up, nor do most people. What did happen was that there was a rearrangement of events to validate Gov. Rhodes’ account.
All the points you brought up in rebuttal are already known, so nothing new gets learned by determining what actually happened – an order, return fire, or as I have always thought, simply a scared, confused situation where someone panicked (as indeed training for these situations was NOT the norm in the 60′s for the Guard, but certainly is now and has been for a while.)
As I said, I think finding out what actually instigated the shots being fired to see if there is indeed culpability and an associated coverup are good enough reasons in and of themselves to pursue this.
But that is really all.
thanks Shaun, Appreciate it. Also have to mention the trope of ‘no bullets in guns’ is untraceable as a factual quote by a named person, and appears to be an urban legend begun by someone in media who may have heard it from a naive child, but that was hardly the sentiment at Kent State that day and til now. Same at Columbine massacre “How could this happen here?” supposedly said by an child who is un-named, was touted all over the MSM. I was present the day the media descended. That’s not even close to what people were saying. Not even close. But then too, often when people are just shocked to their very bones, they can speak out of their minds, truly, as we’ve seen in mothers whose child has suddenly died in utero, or parents finding after a mudslide their home collapsed and grandchildren within are dead. It has been, for a long time, a puzzle, when at these sorrowful scenes how some few MSM journos can consistentlypick the least rather than the most of what is said/ done/ saved/ enacted soulfully on site and directly afterward. As you know Shaun, often too the ‘blue streak language’ of grief and rage also rarely spoken about even though it is realer than real.
J. Spencer, real learning has happened already, long ago. There is no excuse for obsession about it, “resurrection” of a long-dead issue, a typical lefty misuse of language (“massacre,” as with leftist misuse so often of “assassination,” etc.), weird thoughts or feelings about it, or anything else now. About the only thing merited would be review of any now-found or now-uncovered film footage or photographs of the event that corrected previous misunderstandings or gave us new information, or testimony now from observers or participants that also corrected or enlightened us now. None of that is found here.
All closed loop, gratuitious “lefty” bashing aside, there is a well known axiom that applies here. I’m sure you’ve heard of it:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana