Why Americans Supported the Kent State Shooting
Just Look to LA
On May 4, 1970, over two dozen troopers in the Ohio National Guard took aim and fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds, slaying four students and wounding nine. An overwhelming majority of Americans, in the wake of the incident, sided not with the shot students but with the Guardsmen. 58% of those polled by Gallup the day after the incident blamed the students and thought the shooting justified, with a mere 11% blaming the Guardsmen.1 In fact, many celebrated the slayings, seeing it as having been a long time coming and much deserved.
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Historian Geoffrey Wawro, recounting the burning feeling and sense of smug satisfaction with the shooting amongst ordinary Americans in his The Vietnam War, noted (emphasis added):
Bestselling novelist James Michener, who wrote an account of the Kent State shootings, noted that for several weeks after Ohio's National Guard troops had killed or wounded fifteen students, the town of Kent's daily newspaper had felt compelled to reserve a full page for "one of the most virulent outpourings of community hatred in recent decades" —not against the trigger-happy Guard unit that had fired on the students with live ammunition, but against the student victims, who were denigrated as punks, creeps, subversives, vandals, and crybabies. "Live ammunition! Well, really, what did they expect? Spitballs?" was a typical comment by a Ravenna, Ohio, resident. "The National Guard made only one mistake," another reader wrote, "they should have fired sooner and longer."
Their reason for thinking as much was quite clear: the Guardsmen were quite obviously justified in firing, even if their aim was somewhat poor, as the students were finally facing justice after days of violent anarchy that involved the pelting of troopers with rocks and the torching of the ROTC barracks.
On May 1, they had smashed police cars with beer bottles, injured five officers, and anarchically smashed storefronts through town before starting a bonfire in the street. On May 2, student activists threatened those business owners whose storefronts they hadn’t already destroyed, telling downtown business owners to either display anti-war slogans or watch their businesses burn; they then set the ROTC barracks alight and tried to kill, with rocks, firefighters and cops who arrived to extinguish the blaze. On May 3, students again pelted police officers and Guardsmen with rocks and had to be dispersed with tear gas. On May 4, dozens of the students again pelted Guardsmen with rocks, hitting at least one jeep and numerous troopers, and shortly after, the troopers had finally had enough of being harassed while "the sky was black with stones" directed at them. So, for a few seconds, they opened fire on their violent tormentors.
Given the totality of the circumstances—namely the days of violent anarchy enjoyed by the students—Americans, particularly those who had witnessed the student-led atrocities, generally saw the shooting as just and deserved. Then, just two years later, Nixon won 49 states as the frustrated Silent Majority rejected leftist protesters at the ballot box.2 As Theophilus Chilton noted on X, describing why the American people sided with Nixon after Kent State, “While optics can be important, we should understand that strong, decisive leadership is the single biggest thing people will follow. The optics of weak, indecisive leadership are far worse than the optics of using violence to put down violent riots.”3
Of course, the general feeling that the students deserved to be chastised with lead has mostly been forgotten now, and people generally see the Guardsmen as being somewhat to blame and the students as being innocent:4
But while ingoramuses now see exhausted, long-tormented Guard troopers defending themselves from deadly weapon-wielding, communist-minded radicals as something horrific and unjust, America at the time had a different opinion. Exhausted by years of an unpopular war and even more unpopular, radical anti-war movement, not to mention gradually rising inflation and steadily increasing crime, Americans were glad to see the leftist students get a taste of their own medicine. Yes, the war was still unpopular. But, still, Americans were glad the Guard troopers shot leftists in Ohio and bayonetted them in New Mexico5 while fed-up construction workers beat more protesting leftists over the head with heavy wrenches and hammers in New York City.6 Nixon won by a tremendous margin just two years later, after all.
In short, ordinary Americans had had enough and were glad to see their radical enemies start to pay for their crimes. The 1960s were defined by race riots,7 the entitled and socialistic students spat upon and otherwise behaved cruelly toward long-suffering soldiers,8 the government seemed to be losing control of America,9 and we were losing the Cold War—in large part thanks to subversive elements inside America, namely the student protesters. So, between the constant riots and disasters, ordinary Americans who might not have supported the Vietnam War but otherwise were horrified by the way their country was headed—and America in the ‘60s was on the path to collapse10—were glad to see those responsible for the chaos pay with their blood for what they were inflicting upon the country.
In some ways, this is interesting purely as a historical anecdote. Much like the truth about the Rhodesian Bush War and America’s support for the communist rebels fighting in it, it shows that what you have been taught about the period is a lie: Americans saw the shooting as justice rather than a tragedy.
But it is also relevant to today.
The America of 2025 is much more prosperous than the America of 1970 in most ways, but otherwise similar in many respects. Namely, race-based public anarchy is hovering like the sword of Damocles above us and could fall at any moment, with the memory of the last time that happened being just a few years in the recent past: they had ‘67 and ‘69, we have the Floyd riots of 2020. Further, those hugely destructive riots—the Floyd riots did $2 billion in insured losses alone,11 with many tens of billions more in direct and indirect costs12— come alongside other disasters and problems, such as the collapse of the family, inflation, and losing wars abroad.
And now we have the LA Riots Redux, much as they got Kent State after the race riots. Much as could be seen in the public reaction to Kent State, Americans are sick and tired of what is going on. Gone, largely, is the demoralized, “well, maybe the protesters have a point” attitude that defined our Floyd riots and the post-MLK assassination riots of yesteryear. Instead, the general mood is the sterner, harsher attitude that followed Kent State: "The National Guard made only one mistake, they should have fired sooner and longer."
Why that is now the attitude is obvious. After all the depression of the past few years, armed foreign nationals are hurling rocks at cops off of overpasses—a clear attempt to kill them—while burning American flags and waving Mexican flags. California looks like an occupied country, and we haven’t even lost a war…or so we think. While a certain type of Bioleninist sees the situation with glee and is glad America is being humiliated by her invaders, to everyone else, the situation is generally intolerable and cries out for harsh reprisals.
We are not a country if masked thugs, many of whom are from abroad and have loyalties still lying abroad, are setting property alight and trying to kill police officers without any repercussions. That is tacitly understood, and so there’s a chance that we’re on the verge of a Kent State on May 4 situation, or even a Hard Hat Riot situation.
Either way, I think it’s likely that America would react to such an outcome the same way it reacted to Kent State, which is with some mixture of glee and agreement. Perhaps not, but the same undercurrents lurk, and the same exasperated attitude that defined the early 70s is in full force now. The “vibe shift,” as the saying goes, is both here and real. As The American Sun put it in a recent article:13
Americans are tired of the double standard and manufactured chaos that always comes from one source. They’re tired of media outlets that gloss over the destruction caused by rioters while fixating on the optics of federal response. They’re tired of the political gamesmanship that leaves communities in ruins with their little lives wrecked to score some policy point. For many, Trump’s harsher measures are seen as a necessary evil when local leaders abdicate responsibility. The real anger lies in the spreading perception that this cycle is not just a failure of governance but a deliberate strategy to weaponize chaos against political opponents, leaving the rest of us to pay the price. It is creating an annoyed and tired population who will not care when far harsher measures are deployed to bring rioters to heel.
Now it just remains to be seen what happens next. If Nixon is a guide, then the harshest response will bring the best reaction from voters. That’s not to say it would be a good thing or that it is the best tactic—it is likely prudent, for the long term, to deny the left images like the crying students at Kent State and to just disappear the protesters in the night, as Chris Rufo recommends.14 But it is, increasingly, what the incensed Silent Majority is leaning toward wanting. And whatever is done, anarchy can’t be tolerated, and the American people appear poised to get very intolerant of it.
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As noted here: https://x.com/RyderSelmi/status/1932275934016815228
Though this is now treated as a myth, it undoubtedly happened, as covered in Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam
This is just a forum post, but a reasonably good and succinct commentary on how the US government appeared to be on the verge of collapsing: https://x.com/ObamaGarak/status/1914572080303006049
MartyMade notes this well here: https://x.com/martyrmade/status/1700251598470131833
An estimate from Grok, the AI program owned by Elon, puts the upper end around $28 billion, which is probably a good rought estimate: https://x.com/i/grok/share/ww9Km9vQFYrfw7Bb4zcjxL4Nt
Thanks for the article and links. I think Rufo's idea of visible-invisible/containment/off-camera snatches makes sense. Most importantly, like DOGE, Trump needs to stop the funding of antifa and NGOs. Cut them off at the head.
The biggest differences between today and 1970, in my opinion, are the political/cultural circumstances; like the pro-anarchy CA governor and the LA mayor, the rabidly anti-white media, the activist courts, Kneeling Nancy, schools, gay marriage, anti-western churches and even feminist academia and high culture. Unthinkable in 1970. Then, the culture was moving into a post-hippie revolution phase which has now solidified as sex and race quotas everywhere, which were still in the early stages back then.
There's a lot of holes western European men have dug themselves into for the past 55 years.
What white men have created in the past 55 years is a sacred-victim, entitled parasite culture; an oikophobic milieu where traditional sacred objects, spaces and gestures have been systematically perverted and destroyed.
Driving to work, donning my hard hat shortly. Hard hat riots certainly has a ring to it.