The Kent State University Massacre: A Military Analysis

Here's an item I sent to another website:

Allow me to begin by expressing my deepest sympathy to you and to the families of all those wounded and killed in the events of 4 May 1970 in the utterly outrageous and inexcusable act for which that day will forever be held in infamy by every just society this planet will ever host.

I must, however, in the interest of keeping the historical [record (sorry: typo!)] free from any possible accusation of bias which the enemies of freedom might use to impugn the cause of peace and justice, indicate several problems I have with some people's interpretation of purported orders audible on the famous audiotape of that day's events.

First, I do not hear the word "guard" on the tape. There are those who claim that the word "guard" would never be part of a military order, but this is false. The word "guard" would be the opening of any order directed towards one standing static guard at some government installation, as a salutation informing the guard on duty to stand on the alert for some subsequent order. The Ohio National Guard, on that day, were obviously not standing static guard duty, so an order including such a salutation would have been contextually nonsensical.

Further, the command "point" is clearly audible on the tape, and, once again, there are those who claim that such a word would never be part of any military order. This claim is false, but the truth of it also renders the order irrelevant to a study of this atrocity; this command, once again, is a salutation directing the "point" (i.e., the man furthest forward in the formation) to be on the alert to receive some subsequent order, which the tape clearly proves was never actually issued. As the men who turned and fired constituted the rear rank of the formation, the order was obviously not directed at them. In no event was the command "point" an order to aim weapons: that order would have been "Aim!".

Indeed, the sequence of orders which would have caused the actions observed in the film footage would have been:

"Rear rank: HALT!"

"Rear rank: ABOUT FACE!"

"Rear rank: AIM!"

"FIRE!"

None of these commands are heard in the audiotape.

The point is that, in that time and place, armed soldiers fired upon unarmed protestors, which fact plainly constitutes an inexcusable abuse of state power by any rational standard.

Peace!

Robert