Kent State: An American Tragedy

by Brian VanDeMark

“Regardless of the actions and taunts of the rioters, you must remain the well-disciplined soldier,” “exercise soldierly restraint under all conditions,” and “the temptation to use high-handed methods may be great, but you must remain calm and retain your good judgment in order that you may act wisely regardless of personal feelings or beliefs,” “using only the minimum force necessary.” The message was clear: “Good judgment may prevent [a] situation from getting completely out of hand” and “Use common sense and do only what is necessary to do and can be justified afterwards.”x Yet guardsmen were also taught to use their rifles as lethal weapons, not as nonlethal control instruments, and that “in any instance where human life is endangered by the forcible, violent actions of a rioter, or when rioters to whom the Riot Act has been read cannot be dispersed by any other reasonable means, then shooting is justified.”