Kent State
Masked National Guardsmen fired a barrage of tear gas into a crowd of demonstrators on the campus of Kent State University, in Kent, Ohio, May 4, 1970. Image by Bettmann/CORBIS via Flickr
Monday, May 4, was the 50th anniversary of the Kent State shootings. Thirteen students were shot and four killed by the Ohio National Guard during a Vietnam War protest after the invasion of Cambodia. On that day, I was a student up the road at Michigan State University, helping lead Vietnam protests there. It all felt very personal. It still does.
The 1971 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo by John Paul Filo of the Kent State Shootings. Via Wylio http://bit.ly/IJoqIS.
May 4, 1970 -- 42 years ago today -- was the day protesting the war in Vietnam became serious.
On April 30, 1970 President Nixon had announced an invasion of Cambodia, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese and National Liberation Front operations in the border area. Protests spontaneously broke out at universities all over the country.
On May 4, National Guardsmen fired on a group of protesting students at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four and wounding nine. Jeff Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer became casualties of the war. A presidential commission later concluded that the shooting was "unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."