25 years ago this month: Long Beach reacts to Kent State

Shootings at war protest provoked anger, demonstrations in 1970

A quarter century ago, young Americans were fighting and dying in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia.

American B-52 bombers were bombing Viet Cong training camps in Cambodia. These bombings were illegal, and the administration of then President Richard Nixon repeatedly lied to the American people about the bombing.

At home, campus protests against the bombings and other warrelated U.S. foreign policy measures tore college campuses from coast to American coast.

On the campus of Kent State University in Ohio, just such a protest of U.S. bombing in Cambodia was held on the noon of May 4. 1970.

As the demonstration ended, after members of the National Guard were pelted with stones, guardsmen stopped, turned and fired into the crowd.

Four students were killed, and nine were wounded.

The next day, one of the largest demonstrations ever held on the campus of CSULB spilled over onto 7th St.

Recently, Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense and one of the prime architects of U.S. policy in Vietnam, has said, in effect, that the war was a mistake and that the decision makers in Washington knew early into the conflict that we couldn't win. More than 50,000 Americans died in Vietnam.

The following are accounts of and reaction to the these events as they appeared in the Daily Forty-Niner.

"Between 35 and 40 shots were fired, according to (Ohio's Adjutant General S.T.) Del Corso, after the dissenters had hurled rocks and other objects at the guardsmen. Corso called the incident a "survival incident."

- Daily Forty-Niner, Wednesday, May 6, 1970

"Richard Nixon, when elected president, pledged he would end the Vietnam War and attempt to bring all Americans together.

Tuesday, thousands of Americans and South Vietnamese troops launched their offensive into Cambodia, seeking to smash North Vietnamese base camps.

Mean while, at least four students have died due to violence Monday on the Kent State University campus. The nation's colleges and universities have literally been ripped apart by protests, strikes and violence.

Peace cannot be attained through violence." -Daily Forty-Niner staff editorial, Wednesday, May 6, 1970

"Students here believe in peace. But, and this is very important, we also believe that peace is becoming impossible - impossible because you - our the mothers and fathers and storekeepers and taxpayers in the college communities - are not aware of how critical the world situation really is."

- Daily Forty-Niner staff editorial, Thursday, May 7, 1970

"We struggle on because we can conceive the idea of a better world. We can conceive of the idea of freedom and democracy and we can understand the real world. We understand the ruling few who manipulate brother against brother with promises of individualized plenty and personal survival. We understand the history of man and his constant struggler to be free of those who oppress him. We understand the promise of life and the inevitability of death. We sense our power as people and our ability to transform history."

- Rick Anthony, senior, political science Printed in the Wednesday, May 13, 1970 edition of the Daily Forty-Niner

"The Cambodian situation has triggered a response among our young people which is unprecedented. This military action of war was taken without consulting the Congress. Do you wonder that our young people are apprehensive? Where is the line between military aggression as developed in Nuremberg and Tokyo, 1935/36 and our possession in the world today?"

- taken from the text of a speech given by then-CSULB President Donald Simmons on Wednesday, May 13, 1970.