On May 4, 1970, the M-1 Garand rifles of the Ohio National Guard were used in combat; against college kids!
Digging Deeper
With the United States torn by the War in Viet Nam, protests at college campuses became common.
President Nixon had promised to end the War in Viet Nam when running for election in 1968, and by 1970 he had sent US forces into Cambodia to eliminate sanctuary for communist Vietnamese forces and disrupt communist supply lines. Many in the US saw this broken promise as an escalation of the unpopular war.
Additional fuel for the anti-war fire was the news of the My Lai massacre of innocent civilians by US soldiers and a change in how the military draft was conducted, eliminating some deferments. New protests erupted at colleges across the country, and Kent State University not far from Cleveland, Ohio was no exception.
Read Full Article »
