The Kent State "Massacre" meme might not be correct

[The Village Idiot]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/04/new-light-shed-on-kent-state-killings/

Previously undisclosed FBI documents suggest that the Kent State antiwar protests were more meticulously planned than originally thought and that one or more gunshots may have been fired at embattled Ohio National Guardsmen before their killings of four students and woundings of at least nine others on that searing day in May 1970.

As the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State antiwar protests Tuesday, a review of hundreds of previously unpublished investigative reports sheds a new — and very different — light on the tragic episode.

The upheaval that enveloped the northeastern Ohio campus actually began three days earlier, in downtown Kent. Stirred to action by President Nixon's expansion of U.S. military operations in Cambodia, a roving mob of earnest antiwar activists, hard-core radicals, curious students and others smashed 50 bank and store windows, looted a jewelry store and hurled bricks and bottles at police.

Four officers suffered injuries, and the mayor declared a civil emergency. Only tear gas dispersed the mob.

An exhaustive review later concluded that this unrest on the streets — the worst in Kent's history — was "not an organized riot or a planned protest."

But the FBI's investigation swiftly uncovered reliable evidence that suggested otherwise. Among the strongest was a pre-dawn conversation — never before reported — between two unnamed men overheard inside a campus lounge later that night. Their discussion was witnessed by the girlfriend of a Kent State student and conveyed up the FBI chain of command 15 days later.

"We did it," one man exulted, according to the inquiry. "We got the riot started."

The second man expressed disappointment at being excluded from the riot's planning. "Wait until tomorrow night," the leader replied excitedly. "We just got the word. We're going to burn the ROTC building."

This was 20 hours before the ROTC headquarters on the Kent State campus, an old wooden frame building, was, in fact, burned to the ground.

"What about the flare?" the second man asked before the leader spotted the coed listening to them and abruptly ended the conversation. Dozens of witnesses later told the FBI they saw a flare used to ignite the blaze

[thundley4]

Sort of related, but only tangentially, I wonder if some of these flash mobs that have been happening are also backed by some of the leftist groups that sponsor so many of the other riots protests of the left.

[debk]

I was a senior in high school when Kent State happened.

I was accepted to go to Northern Illinois University in the fall, and had never been to the campus. NIU was/is in the same athletic conference as KS.

NIU rioted in "sympathy"....turned over campus police cars and set them on fire, broke out windows in a lot of campus buildings and fires were set in a variety of places.

Went there a week later on Mother's Day with my parents to see the campus.

Not a good time for a visit.  My Navy vet father went nuts when he saw the damage from a "bunch of commie hippies"...

I wasn't for sure positive that I was going to get to go to school in the fall until I got dropped off at my dorm...

I was there from fall of 70 until spring of 74...every year, it was quite tense on the anniversary of Kent State. There was always a candlelight march and speeches.

I made sure I stayed in my dorm room on those anniversaries....