Kent State Incident
Were the shootings at Kent State justifiable? The shootings that happened at Kent State weren't expected to happen, but they did. The protest got way out of hand when the protesters set the ROTC building on fire. “ Nixon and his top foreign affairs advisor, Henry Kissinger, tired several tactics to extricate the U.S. from the war without just turning over South Vietnamese government into taking more responsibility for the war. To force the issue, the U.S began withdrawing some troops in 1969. At the same time, however, Nixon tried another tactic by ordering an increase in the bombing of North Vietnam, and also in the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. In essence, he was trying to put pressure on both sides to …show more content…
troops who were pursuing North Vietnamese soldiers based there. The decision intensified opposition to the war, and massive anti war demonstrations spread across the country. At Kent State University in Ohio, National Guard troops shot and killed four student demonstrators. Anti-war fever grew even stronger in 1971, when the New York Times published what became known as the Pentagon papers. The documents, leaked by a former Defense Department Worker named Daniel Ellsberg, proved the government had lied about the war’s conduct. Later that year, an army lieutenant anmed William Calley was convicted of supervising the massacre of more than 100 unarmed civilians at a village called My Lai. Despite the mounting opposition, Nixon easily won re-election in 1972, in part because of a politically inept opponent (U.S. senator George Mcgovern of South Dakota), and in part because Kissinger announced a few weeks before the election that a peace settlement was not too far off. After the election, however, Nixon ordered heavy bombing of North Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi. But the Vietnamese resolve, and 15 U.S. bombers were shot down. On January 27, 1973, the U.S and North Vietnam announced they had reached an agreement to end the fighting and work to negotiate a
Were the shootings at Kent State justifiable? The shootings that happened at Kent State weren't expected to happen, but they did. The protest got way out of hand when the protesters set the ROTC building on fire. “ Nixon and his top foreign affairs advisor, Henry Kissinger, tired several tactics to extricate the U.S. from the war without just turning over South Vietnamese government into taking more responsibility for the war. To force the issue, the U.S began withdrawing some troops in 1969. At the same time, however, Nixon tried another tactic by ordering an increase in the bombing of North Vietnam, and also in the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia. In essence, he was trying to put pressure on both sides to …show more content…
troops who were pursuing North Vietnamese soldiers based there. The decision intensified opposition to the war, and massive anti war demonstrations spread across the country. At Kent State University in Ohio, National Guard troops shot and killed four student demonstrators. Anti-war fever grew even stronger in 1971, when the New York Times published what became known as the Pentagon papers. The documents, leaked by a former Defense Department Worker named Daniel Ellsberg, proved the government had lied about the war’s conduct. Later that year, an army lieutenant anmed William Calley was convicted of supervising the massacre of more than 100 unarmed civilians at a village called My Lai. Despite the mounting opposition, Nixon easily won re-election in 1972, in part because of a politically inept opponent (U.S. senator George Mcgovern of South Dakota), and in part because Kissinger announced a few weeks before the election that a peace settlement was not too far off. After the election, however, Nixon ordered heavy bombing of North Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi. But the Vietnamese resolve, and 15 U.S. bombers were shot down. On January 27, 1973, the U.S and North Vietnam announced they had reached an agreement to end the fighting and work to negotiate a