4 May 1970 – Students Protesting the Vietnam War are Killed on the Campus of Kent State University
*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons During one of the most contentious periods in American history, a singular event crystallized the resistance to the Vietnam War: members of the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. The images of terrified and heartbroken protesters crouching over the dead forever defined the era with an unmistakable sense of division within the United States. To some, it is the tipping point for a new attitude among the public towards American involvement in Southeast Asia. In the last half of the 1960s, public discourse on the role of government became increasingly heated. With the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and the Kennedy brothers — President John and Senator Robert — the counterculture movement gained steam. Fueled by liberal ideas emanating from universities and “hippie” communities driven by drugs as much as peace and love, distrust of authority exploded among the Baby Boom generation. Those born in the wake of World War II were very much in the opposite mindset to that of their parents, who served in or supported the effort to conquer the Axis Powers and generally accepted that the intentions of those in Washington, DC were sound.