38 Years Ago - 4 Dead at Kent State

On May 4, 1970, four students at Kent State University in Ohio were killed by Ohio National Guardsmen at an on-campus march to protest Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia five days earlier. Those of us who remember Kent State first hand (I was in first grade, the daughter and granddaughter of KSU professors) know the “order to fire” did not come from some commander. The contempt for the life of the “dirty f**king hippies” came from Ohio Governor Rhodes, J. Edgar Hoover, and Richard Nixon. In 1970, the Vietnam war was going horribly wrong, the public that was waking up incredibly quickly, and the President and his administration’s reaction was not only to stay the course but to dig in their heels and question the patriotism of anyone who did not go along.