Good evening. Were happy youre here for this even. Ive one of the reference librarians here and were here to listen to howard mean about his new book 67 shots at kent state where the shooting take place, only ten miles from here. Beer excited to have this program of national interest. Mr. Means a biographer and former editor at the washingtonian, Business Books include pakistan the ageneral jerry takes tis play. Johnny appleseed, the man, the myth, and the american story. And also wrote the first biography on colin powell. Join me in welcoming mr. Mean. I also wrote 67 shots. Im going to talk about that tonight instead of 76. Thank you, amanda. Ammann to is also herself a very accomplished novelist, and mystery stories, won an agatha christie. Everybody who was at kent state in 1970, stand up and raise your hand. Okay, this is scary. This is really scary. I wanted to point out jerry back there. [applause] jerry was a great help to me in putting getting contacts and writing the book, and as some of you are perhaps taking his course here for over 55 on kent state itchll start with a slide show, just to sort of get us all on the same page about the timeswhat the background noise was that happened on may 4, and the people would werent at kent state can envision what the situation looked like. It all begins begins april 30, 1970. The evening Richard Nixon addresses the nation. He had previously two weeks el area announce third would be a drawdown in vietnam of 150,000 troops, and on april 30th, and he announces instead the war is going to be expanded into cambodia. Any of you who were in vietnam in 1970 would have been surprised the war was being expanded into cambodia since the war was already in cambodia. But it shocked in the nation, and nixon expected blowback on American Camp puts and not it. Not dramatically at kent state. Heres nixon addressing the nation. Right there, a parrots beak, what he talked about. Thats a part of cambodia that is closer to saigon than baltimore is to washington. A very strange talk. He got up behind the desk and walked over and pointed to the map and then sat back down. Very strength. At kent state the next day this is the next day friday, may 1, there are two demonstrations, one at midday, this is a group that called its World History unions apposed to expect addition. They were a time of strange acronyms and this is one of them. Theyre excuse me way ahead of myself dont get to the credits yet. Theyre burying the constitution right there. Theres a second demonstration would hours later. Looked to be fairly tame and so president robert white decides to honor a previous commitment and go up to mason city, iowa forks a meeting of to the College Testing group for which he is unpaid board chairman. Thats when things fall apart. This is 11 30 at night. The first warm day of spring. Campus day. Also, for those who were there and remember, they sold 32 beer in kent. Now, i dont know about you. Traffic a lot of 32 beer, and theres a bartender, a bar owners dream you. Had to drink twice as butch beer to get the same buzz as 6. 4 beer and you felt bloated and nasty when you got there but around midnight, a little before midnight, theres some kids come out. They light a fire in the street. They start stopping cars, talking about vietnam. They eventually race down water street and throw rocks and other things through windows of shops. The mayor about this time declare the bars have to be closed. So, now you have all these kids coming out of the bars, theyve been drinking, a lot of them were there to watch bands. On college campuses, headliners go on around milt after the close the bar, and a lot were there to see this man perform. One of the most prolific scorers in nba history, in two senses of scoring. Wilt chamberlain and game four of the nba title series, and this is may 4, the nba title series, not the quarterfinals. The wilt chamberlain, jerry west. Willis reed. Et cetera, et cetera, a great game. This game starts on the west coast at midnight. Five minutes after it starts kids head out of the bars because the bars are closed and theyre on the street so ugliness ensues. The other problem is the city of kent has been prepped by the times and the fbi to assume the worst of any demonstration. One reason they had been prepped was this man. Anybody recognize home . Jerry rubin. The had a talk at kent two weeks before, in a talk sanctioned by the university. One thing he said at the tack jerry ruben was street theater. The party was abbie hoffman, and jerry ruben liked to provoke. He was street theater. He said in or the to fight the revolution you have to first kill your parents. Now, jerry lewis told me that he said that his students he would the next dave he says, he was speaking metaphor include. Kill your parents. 0, no, he meant it. Kill your parents. Understandably this upset the residents of kept somewhat at the residents of kent some that kids were being told to kill their parents. Then he goes around after the gets everybody all the street and estimates 50,000 worth of damage. Turns out to be 10,000 or 5,000 depending on whether you take his revised estimate or the chamber of commerce estimate. Nevertheless in the wee hours of the morning the calls the Governors Office and says there has been trouble on streets of kent. Sds students were involved, and he makes his first inquiry about bringing the National Guard to kent. To the best of my knowledge, the pest of anybodys knowledge, the sds presence on the streets of kent on friday night, if it existed at all, was absolutely minimal. I got in with dick about it. He said i thought when i looked at the photograph i was going to say sds and weathermen but nothing to do with the kept campus, and there are students can we just didnt know who they are. I said how many people involved . He said, i wouldnt argue if you said zero. At anyway rate, now in the ear of the Governors Office that sds is coming to kent. Saturday. Anybody know who that is . Sean connery . Claudine, miss france in 1958, and for darn good reason as far as im concerned. So, saturday, they closed the bars in kent. Kids cant leave the campus because theyre restricted to campus, so the university does a great job. They throw dances together, bring in movies like thunder ball to show in dormitories. They forth get one thing. They dont protect the r. O. T. C. Building. If one thing was predictable on saturday night it whats r. O. T. C. Would comeunder assault theres a big sign on the commons on friday, wife is the r. O. T. C. Building Still Standing . Whose who lived through the time, r. O. T. C. Buildings were attacked nationwide. The most ready symbol of military power on campuses. Kent state administration leaves the building essentially unprotected. When the guard finally rolls in from akron the sky is lit up in red and thats what it looks like. It looked like it was on fire and put out and then burst into flames. This is the first time the guard comes on campus and thats what they see. This is what it looked like after. You see the building looking east, and this is the r. O. T. C. Building looking south. This an important shot. Set the stage for monday. Thats the comment behind the r. O. T. C. Building and thats the hall the students run by. This is prime piece of real estate and every Academic Department in kent, as far as i can tell, wanted that piece of property. Thats one reason why preponderances nobody defended the building. Why the Campus Police stood aside and let it burn down, didnt help the Kent Fire Department when they came out and people started attacking the hoses because this was prime real estate. Somebody said to dothe problem is if you let people burn down a building, they take it as a green light, an okay sign. Burn the building down. Not going to do anything. A terrible message to send to the students. So, this is saturday. Im sorry, yes, saturday sunday, may 3rd. Jim rhodes comes to kent help has been in a debate the night before with robert firefighter, jr. , Republican Senatorial primary. Rhodes, by one poll on friday was trailing by 70,000 votes. The primary is on tuesday, the next day. Jim rhodes comes to town and this is a chance for jim rhodes to energize the law and order base and is not going to pass it up. He has a press conference, calls the people who have been doing these demonstration worst than brown shirts and woes than night reider and he said were not longer going to treat the symptoms. Were going to eradicate the problem. Incredibly provocative. And irresponsible language. But jim rhodes could see he was recall arey rallying the base, and he loses by 5,000 votes on tuesday. Heres what the campus looked like on sunday. I like this shot because those skies look so regular. I love this bun because you have this campus scene. So much like grew up in the 1960s, 1970s, and then you have the guard with the m1. But everything looked kind, everything looked all together. This is a little more questionable but a lot of that going on. Then at night it falls apart again. The students want to go on they mass at the main gate, by the lincoln street. They mass there the want to march on the town the guard says, no, theres a confront addition. It gets ugly and thats the situation right there. And this is how sunday night ends, except this. These are scenes of equipment this is the kind of equipment the guard brought with them to kent. You have a campus, theyve got five of these fully armored personnel carriers. Theyve got eight of these white helicopters, four of these heavy helicopters, and of course, theyre tearing m1s. And those who were there, again, remember. Thats the night of the helicopter. Theres tea gas flying everywhere. Dropping pellets, chasing people back to the dormitory biffle monday morning, when people wake up, its not a confront is addition about kent state. Its about the guard having taken over the campus. And thats really when you talk to person after person, they say they same thing. Its at that point that it fell apart. Us against the guard. And so the kid wake up monday. They got an occupied campus. Guards at the gate. Theyve got half trackness the parking lot. Thats the music and Speech Therapy billing, building, i think. And Everybody Knows theres going to be a confrontation at noon on the mall. Im sorry didnt on the commons. Theres no secret. Professors are talking about it in classes, scribbled on blackboards. Everybody knows what is going to happen. Is this the scene an noon on the commons. This is taylor hall, kids massed. Thats a closeup. Thats Jeffrey Lewis right there sorry sorry, jeff jerry. And he has 24 minutes to live at this point. This is the guard and what are they holding in their arms in m1s. There could not be a worse weapon to do crowd control with. Those who have been in the military duty, an m1 is low that to half a mile, an m1 if you line 250 people up and three people up 250 yards out, the round will pass through all three. The m1 will hit if you hit an engine block with it, it ill move the engine block unless its inside the car. It has incredible speed, power, energy. A terrifying instrument and al all you can do with an m1 and a bayonet for crowd control is to let people get close enough to you to stab them, shoot them, and when i look back at this and me more i thought about this i spent months and months thinking about this i kept coming back to the images from 1965 in birmingham, alabama. You remember bull conner doing crowd control in the streets of birmingham wimp leashed dobermans and water cannon. Absolutely humanitarian crowd control. Never thought id think of bill conner as humanitarian. But in comparison. The other thing they have to do crowd control with is excuse me. One more thing. This is also noon on monday, may 4. This is the brown derby restaurant. Some of you might remember, half mile off camp pulse. Who was at the brun derby at brown derby at noon . The president , Vice President , all of the senior administrators, they were all there having lunch. To talk about what they were questioning to do once the guard left the campus. The president had come back. He had come back on sunday about midday. He was there, too. There is a crisis communication center. A windowless room in the administration building, and a guy named ray, who i had a great interview with, a 23 or 24yearold grad walt assistant who was detailed to president whites office. He was the guy charge representing the administrations interests on the kent state campus at the moment all this happened. He couldnt see anything. He told me he is talking to people with crackly walkietalkieses and has no idea who is talking to and thats the state of communication between the senior official ted brown officials at the brown derby restaurant. And then the guard comps out and theres tear gas. Its dissipating because its a 17milesanhour wind. The stock of tear gas was quantifiable. You have a canister, theres a 17milesanhour wind you know how much loss youre going to get firing into the win but this was their principle means nor crowd control other than the m1s and the bayonets. I have a little schematic here. Let me just for nose who dont know, this where is the r. O. T. C. Building burn, this is where the National Guard starts at noon. This is where the kids are on the highlyside here in front of taylor hall. I think its a baseball stadium. The rightfield line, the leftfield line here, deep center field right here where the victory bell is. The guard comes us up and going to push the people over the hill. The bulk goes over company a, and troop g guess this way. A group of students splinters and goes off here, and is who company c . Thats right a man who is in company c that day. They good over this way, and they just stay up here at the top of the hill. They run the people up here. This get to the top of the hill and what have the students done do im sorry, they say there can be no crowds, what is a crowd . A guardsman runs off and says three people. And i think gather was telling me that story. Somebody said to him, so, two students are talking . I come up and join the conversation. Its illegal . Saysey. Its an insane mandate. The take off, theyre up here, get up to the top of the hill, the general, the Mission Commander says he hoped with all of his heart when he got to the top of the hill here that the students would have dissipated. What are the chances of that . Theyve been run down here. They come into the parking lot down hire. The guard will then chase them down, and theyll march well, youll see in a second cn the pagoda. Theyve done this before on previous days. This is the situation. They dont fire, and they go back, they start retreating up the hill, and the students think theyre retreating have won and they start chasing them and taunting them, and that is the pagoda. This where is the first turn and start firing. This is colonel fastinger, he was not the these closeups are done by anybody know how to fire a gun . Any know howard . A photographer . Howard did wonderful work, and then this is another one of closeup, the moment robert canterberry turns and seize them firing. So theyre firing at this point. The students start diving in parking lots, dashing for protection. And then we get to i dont want to be i dont want to harp on anybody but this is what happened. This is john cleary. John cleary let me go back one second. The first person the most distant person shot is a guy named doug lan mckenzie. He is 250 yards away, two and a half football fields, walking away, when he is shot through the neck from the back. The bullet misses his spine by an inch and exits through his jaw. 250 yards away. Just some sense of the power of an m1. John cleary was 37yard away. He brought an instamatic and was advancing he was shot in the chest from 37 yards away. He survived but barely he spent the days in the intensive care. And then the dead. Youll recognize these photos. Allison kraus, very much a i think of joan baez, that long hair, Bill Schroeder, he was a he won an army r. O. T. C. Scholarship. He went to Colorado College of mines and decided he didnt like his major there, transferred to kent state so he could be a psychology major. Was number two in his class, in his r. O. T. C. Clash, was on the Freshman Basketball Team when they had freshman teams. He stopped by to have a look what was happening. Theres one photograph, you see him holding his books like this. Going between classes and locking and saying, whats this all about . Just curiosity. This is the one that breaks my heart. Was a speech pathology major and by every indication didnt have a political bone in her body. She was walking from one class to another exactly what kids do on college campuses. And this is jeffrey miller. Jeffrey miller was the most accurate. A short guy, he darted around a lot. He was probably throwing some rocks, probably shouted. He was shot in the mouth. Which suggests intentionality of a horrible sort. This is the photograph that was in al the newspapers. High School Yearbook photos and exaggerated that sense of innocence, innocence lost. You look at these innocent faces, just horrifying. And this is not the famous photograph of where she has her hands up like this, looks like a scream. This is one taken just before that, when she just realized what happened to the person lying on the street next to him. Thats jeff miller. And for some reason to me thats a more powerful photo. Dont know why. Its that moment of first realization before the shock that she gets her is raising her arms. And then go back to this just one time. So, heres the dagnabbit. Stop dog that. Here are the killed down here, you can see the wounded. Thats Doug Mckenzie over there. The guard goes back to its original coordination back here. A group of students have never left over here. Now students start filtering back and theyre telling them what happened, and the anger and i dont know how many of you were on that side of the hill, but this is really in a way the most volatile time of the whole incident. The guard is now facing a crowd. And the guard knows only one thing to do when it faces a crowd. March forward and disperse. The students are not going to disperse. 20 have stripped to the waist and painted xs on their chests and foreheads. I talked to people, said they were ready to charge. They felt angry that they didnt damn the consequences. And that they didnt. This confrontation did not take place is largely due to one man,