Nixonland: America's Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon 1965-72

by Rick Perlstein

At that very moment, radicals were circling the Kent State ROTC building, passing out handbills to the gathering crowd as if programs for a show about to begin. “There’s no need to condone violence,” a faculty marshal told one of the onlookers. “The point of discussion is passed,” the student returned. “The time for action is here…. I don’t want to hear anything a fucking pig like you has to say.” Then he spat on the professor. A chant went up: “Down with ROTC! Down with ROTC!” Two thousand more students straggled toward the site from the high-rise dorms to the east, acting together in ways they’d never act alone, throwing rocks at the rickety wooden building. A teaching fellow, seeing one of her brightest students rushing across the common with an empty oil drum, said, “Stop that!” “We’ve just got to do this. The building has got to go…. Six years of peaceful protest got us nowhere. They’ll listen only when they see flames, and tonight they’re going to see flames.” The oil drum became a battering ram. Its wielders missed a door, bounced off a wall, and tumbled backward in a heap. Lit railroad flares rebounded off the building and spluttered out, except for one, which set off a pair of curtains. The mob cheered, then groaned as the flame smothered. Another group took torches to a wall, but only singed the paint. Ohio boys and girls were proving themselves poor arsonists. An American flag burned much more effectively, illuminating the evening sky. A football player pulled o...