Executive Order 1

To Designate May 4th, 2005, as "Kent State Rememberance Day"

Today I am designating May 4th, 2005, as Kent State Rememberance Day, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the shootings that led to the deaths of four Kent State students, including some who were not part of the protests.

On the night of May 2nd, 1970, Kent State Students and some (but much fewer than conservatives at the time alledged) off-campus student militants burned the ROTC building, after looting the town that night and the night before. When firefighters arrived, the students cut the fire hoses, and the firemen returned to the campus with armed soliders riding on the firetrucks.

On May 3rd, cooler heads could have prevailed, with the specific students responsible for burning the ROTC building being held responsible, along with a guarantee that protests could occur at any time as long as they did not disturb the peace or resort to violence.

However, Governor James A. Rhodes arrived at the campus and made it worse by saying that the students protesting the war were worse than the brownshirts who brought Hitler to power in Germany. He said that a national guard presence was being deployed to "take back the campus" and he accused most of the demonstrators of being radicals who travel from campus to campus.

Up to that point, the police, and national guard could claim that everything they did was a justified response to the protests turning violent. Once the governor made unfounded and outrageous allegations against the protestors, the authorities too were in the thick of things, and were the problem rather than the solution.

On May 3rd there was a mobilization of the Ohio National Guard to the campus, with the football field being used as a staging area for the soliders.

Gradually over the course of May 3rd and then May 4th the war in Vietnam and the protests launched over President Nixon's expansion of the war to Cambodia were no longer the issue for the protestors. Instead, the issue was the occupation of the campus by the Ohio National Guard.

On the 4th, protests began on the commons with chants of "PIGS OFF CAMPUS!" directed at the National Guard. The crowd was told to disperse, but the protestors were not being violent.

Later that day, at a command that was likely "hold your fire" but misinterpreted as "fire" by one squad, several soldiers fired a volley into the crowd. The shooting lasted only seconds, and at the end four students lay dead, including two young women who were passing through on their way to lunch. Another person killed was an active ROTC member who simply wanted to watch what was going on.

There was another incident later in the day when the soldiers ordered students off the commons, which were slowly cleared without violence after a man said that there was going to be a slaughter if they did not leave and he did not want to be part of it.

On May 4th, 1970 the war in Vietnam came home, and America declared war on members of its youth who were opposed to the war. No students were ever brought in on charges of looting or arson, and the National Guard Members were eventually acquitted.

May such a tragedy never happen again at a school or university, or anywhere else in our time.

Sincerely,

Tom Sullivan
President of the United States