Obama palsy-walsy with terrorists.

Armed with tear gas and drawn bayonets, the guard pursued students, protesters and bystanders alike, into dormitories and other campus buildings. Some stones were thrown and at least one student was bayoneted. The question of who set the fire that destroyed ROTC building has never been satisfactorily answered by any investigative body.

That morning (Sunday, May 2nd), Ohio Governor James Rhodes, who was running for US Senate, arrived in Kent and along with city officials, held a news conference. Rhodes, running on a "law and order" platform, attempted to use this opportunity to garner votes in the primary election, which was only two days away.

In a highly inflammatory speech, Rhodes claimed that the demonstrations at Kent were the handiwork of a highly organized band of revolutionaries who were out to "destroy higher education in Ohio." These protesters, Rhodes declared, were "the worst type of people we harbor in America, worse than the brown shirts and the communist element...we will use whatever force necessary to drive them out of Kent!"

Later that evening, a National Guard commander would tell his troops that Ohio law gave them the right to shoot if necessary. This merely served to heighten guardsmen's hostility toward students.

In 1970, Rhodes ordered the Ohio National Guard to Kent State University to quell protests against the Vietnam War. The guardsmen killed four people. Before the shootings, Rhodes referred to the protestors as being "worse than the brownshirts and the communist element and also the nightriders and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America." Two days after the Kent State shootings, Rhodes lost the Republican primary election to the United States Senate.

In reaction to the Kent State Massacre, approximately 4 million students on college campuses across the country participated in strikes and demonstrations, causing over 900 campuses to close. Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington against the war. In response to the incident, President Nixon gave a speech, saying "This should remind us all once again that when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy."

A special state grand jury exonerated the Guardsmen and then indicted about two dozen students for the disturbance preceding the shooting. (One of the Governor's special prosecutors even told a reporter that he felt the Guardsmen should have shot more students!)

The Guardsmen successfully thwarted investigators by removing their name tags and switching assigned weapons. They denied having been ordered to fire. (Two eyewitnesses, both ex-Marines who had served in Vietnam, said they saw a sergeant--later identified as Myron Pryor--give a signal to fire.) The Guardsmen claimed that their lives were endangered by encroaching students, even though a Justice Department investigation concluded that the students never came close enough to pose even a remote threat. Pressured by the victims' families, the Justice Department asked a federal grand jury to indict eight Guardsmen, but (according to Nixon's chief domestic advisor John Ehrlichman) the President personally ordered Attorney General John Mitchell to block the prosecution at the request of Governor Rhodes.

1975

May 28 A three-month-long wrongful death and injury trial begins. It provides the first opportunity to consider the evidence, five years after the killings.

August 27 After hearing highly conflicting testimony--and after considerable controversy over rulings excluding and including certain evidence--the jury decides not to award damages to the parents of those killed and the nine surviving students.

1977

September 12 The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overturns the decision of the 1975 civil jury on the ground that Judge Donald Young mishandled an incident involving jury tampering.

1978
December 9 The second civil trial begins amid rumors that there might be a compromise out-of-court settlement.

1979
January 4 The victims settle out of court. The state of Ohio awards them a total of $675,000, to be split 13 ways, and the defendants sign a "statement of regret." Some victims claim the statement is an apology, but the defendants and their attorneys dispute that.

1990
May 4 KSU dedicates a memorial to "the events of May 4" (not the victims). At the dedication ceremonies, Ohio Governor Richard Celeste apologizes to the families of the four slain students and the nine surviving victims.