background information
The cause for the protest at Kent State was Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia. Congress had just repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution because of the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and soldiers were coming home. However, Nixon had troops go to Cambodia and Laos to ruin the supply depots the Northern Vietnamese had stored. This angered many people, especially the youth of America. There were 441 colleges and universities doing protests against the invasion. One of these was Kent State, and the National Guard went to Ohio to stop the protests. The protests were a result of anger, confusion, loss, and terror because of the war. The counterculture drew in the youth of America because of its ideas of peace and acceptance. The counterculture spurred the Kent State students to action, and the shootings contributed to the rise of the counterculture. The hopeful young people in America were used to the cold, grim reality of relentless war, but never had it entered their own country. People their age were killed for advocating for what’s right, and the students struck back at the government with the resurrected strength from the tumultuous ‘60s. The Kent State Shootings also brought about the question of how much force government should be able to use against the people. There have been many conspiracies about the happenings at Kent State, which may not be far off. People were dying gratuitously. The government was corrupt. Anything could have happened, could have been covered up, as many things were in that decade.