Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

events that led to the Kent State shootings. Everyone involved in the incident, including the National
Guard, were caught in unfavorable and explosive circumstances.
During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a lot of opposition to the Vietnam War, especially among
college students, ultimately at Kent State University, because they did not believe that the United States
should be in Vietnam. Richard M. Nixon, like many other presidential candidates during the Vietnam Era,
vowed to end the Vietnam War if he became the President of the United States. On April 30, 1970, which
was one year after he became president, the United States, under Nixon’s order, invaded Cambodia. The
people who were against the war were livid that Nixon had lied to them, by vowing to end the Vietnam
War, but instead expanded it. If Richard Nixon had not invaded Cambodia, then there would have been
fewer protests, if any, among U.S. citizens opposed to the war, especially the students at Kent State
University. Therefore, the shootings that occurred on May 4, 1970 probably would have never happened.
As a result of the invasion, Kent State students made it clear in numerous ways that they were against the
Vietnam War and the expansion of the war. That resulted in the National Guardsmen, some members of
which were young and untrained while others were highly trained, being placed in the abhorred position of
trying to enforce “law and order.”
On May 1, 1970, World Historians Opposed to Racism and Exploitation (WHORE) were
extremely vocal, by means of a rally, about their opposition to the Vietnam War, the invasion of
Cambodia, and President Richard M. Nixon (Cartaino, 2010). “[R]ally leaders buried a copy of the
United States Constitution, declaring it had been “murdered” when troops had been sent into Cambodia
without a declaration of war or consultation with Congress” (U.S. President’s Commission on Campus
Unrest, 1970, p. 240).
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