The United States from the 1960s and early 1970s had an ideological split between the two sides about the war in Vietnam. On one side are the people who love peace, support to end the war and on the other hand, the US government. Therefore, during this time, the protest movement against the Vietnam War took place wildly. They demanded that the US government quickly withdraw all troops back home, ending the senseless war in South Vietnam.
During the 1968 US presidential campaign, candidate Richard Nixon ran with the platform promising "peace with honor" for the Vietnam War, gradually withdrawing American troops home. Desperate for an honorable end to the war, the Americans elected Nixon to office and then watched and waited for Nixon to fulfill his campaign promise. In fact, when announced, Nixon's plan turned out to be "Vietnamization of the war", shifting the combat role to forces loyal to the pro-American government in Saigon, while still conducting the operation, large-scale bombing of targets throughout Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. On April 30, 1970, President Nixon expanded the war, sending American troops to Cambodia. The decision was controversial because President Nixon approved the operation without informing Secretary of State William Rogers or Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. These officials, along with the American public, only learned of the invasion when Nixon made it public on television. Members of the US Congress accused the President of illegally expanding US military involvement without obtaining the consent of congressmen through a vote. Disappointed and outraged by this decision of the President, students from many universities in the US have conducted many large-scale protests.
Before President Nixon made the official announcement about the invasion of Cambodia, rumors about the US occupation of Cambodia sparked protests at many colleges and universities across the country. At the University of Kent (Ohio state), protests broke out on May 1, 1970.
At that time, National Guard members were on duty in the area, so the mobilization took place quickly. About 1,000 National Guard soldiers were at the Kent school, making it feel like a war zone instead of a school. On May 4, 1970, protests continued, initially everything was peaceful, with activists speaking despite the presence of the National Guard.
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Photo: The US National Guard enters the University of Kent
When they received a request to disperse from General Robert Canterbury of the National Guard, the protesters refused and began to throw stones. General Canterbury ordered the soldiers to load their ammunition and fire tear gas into the crowd.
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Photo: The US National Guard fired tear gas bullets at students
Next, the soldiers advanced, forcing protesters to the football field. Because the football field was surrounded by a fence, the soldiers slipped through the angry crowd and became the target of bricks and stones. Soldiers had to retreat to the hill and from here 28 soldiers suddenly turned back and opened fire. Some shot into the air, some aimed directly at the crowd of protesters.
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Photo: The US National Guard opened fire on a crowd of students at the Kent University.
In just 13 seconds, 67 bullets were fired, killing 4 students and injuring 9 others, one of whom was permanently paralyzed.
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Photo: An American student was seriously injured by a bullet from the National Guard
Students Allison Beth Krause, 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, died at the scene, while William Knox Schroeder, 19, was pronounced dead at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna is nearby.
This event marked the first time a student was killed in a protest against the war in US history, becoming a symbol of the division in public opinion about the war in general and the war in Vietnam in particular. As historians Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan describe in "Who Speaks Out," write: "It was a moment when the whole nation was caught up in the use of weapons of war against the youth, a moment, when all the violence, hatred, and strife of the last decade was compressed into 13 seconds when National Guard soldiers were angry and exhausted, perhaps acting in panic and anger, targeted those who opposed them and took revenge on them”. The deadly shooting has caused enormous outrage in universities across the United States.
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Photo: Students of the University of Kent who were killed by the National Guard on May 4, 1970.
John Filo, a student and part-time photographer, captured this picture of Mary Ann Vecchio crying and kneeling in front of critically injured student Jeffrey Glenn Miller. Filo's photo was reported by the Associated Press and was printed on the front page of the New York Times. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 and has since become a symbol of lost national hope among young people. The photo was also voted by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential photographs in the world of all time.
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Photo: Photograph of the persecution taking place at the University of Kent of the Photographer John Filo.
John Filo's photo caused a stir in public opinion, after being published in the media, it had a strong influence and fueled the anti-war flame among American students with protests taking place on a large scale to request the US government to quickly end the Vietnam War.
The wave of demonstrations was widely attended by students, both lecturers and administrative staff, although they previously disagreed about protest activities in the university. More than 8 million students participated in organized walkouts at hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools, the largest student strike in American history at the time. A total of 34 university and college presidents sent a public letter to President Nixon calling for a speedy end to the war. The demonstration also attracted students from public and private universities and local high schools in working-class communities. Protests took place especially violently in Washington, D.C., against the war and the killing of unarmed student protesters. The situation was so tense that Ray Price, who wrote speeches for President Nixon from 1969 to 1974, had to say: "The city is an armed camp. Crowds are smashing windows, slashing tires, pulling parked cars into intersections... It's no longer a student protest, it's a civil war". The anger and protests and protests of students after what happened at the University of Kent have pushed the division and conflict in the US about the Vietnam War to the climax as commented. by Charles Colson (Advisor to President Nixon from 1969 to 1973): “This cannot be the United States of America. This is not the greatest liberal democracy in the world. This is a country at war with itself.”
A later report by the Scranton Committee (the Commission on Campus unrest previously established by President Nixon) wrote: “Students did not demonstrate against their universities, but rather that they succeeded in bringing schools to protest against a national policy”. To prevent that from happening again and get universities back to normal, the committee members agreed that “nothing is more important than ending the war”.
The Vietnam War also ended 5 years later, but the pain in the hearts of a generation of American students still persists to this day.