The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
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Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#2Not even mentioned is Sihanouk, who had ruled neutral Cambodia since 1941 under various positions, was overthrown in a CIA-sponsored coup in the days before the US invasion of Cambodia. This had the effect of destabilizing Cambodia for the next couple of years.
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#3May 4, *1970*
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#4I'm surprised the article doesn't show "the picture": https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/05/19/kent-state-shooti...
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#5The Vietnam War really wrecked America's sense of self, eh? Out in Vietnam, American soldiers were busy burning innocent people in My Lai, back home armed military were shooting students, and then to cap it all, America lost.
Absolute hammer to the national identity.
For a nation that has prosecuted so many wars before and since, it is quite interesting that this one was such a cultural blow.
Even Iraq, fought on the basis of fraudulent WMD claims, had no such effect.
Wild.
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#6Armed soldiers wheeled and fired en masse on unarmed protestors yet none of them faced legal penalty. The state of Ohio paid compensation. Because the soldiers "feared for their lives." I'm sure it was scary, but maybe we need braver national guardsmen.
Official ass covering after official violence is a long tradition.
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#7I'm sure Kent State University is searching for Accuracy here and not of any shred of possibility that it wasn't culpable for the death of four unarmed students.
Honestly, the last group I'd want to hear from about what transpired that day are modern day administrators of the institution trying to distance itself from a particularly shameful day in its history.
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#8Not even mentioned is Sihanouk, who had ruled neutral Cambodia since 1941 under various positions, was overthrown in a CIA-sponsored coup in the days before the US invasion of Cambodia. This had the effect of destabilizing Cambodia for the next couple of years.
“ Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”
-the late, great Anthony Bourdain
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#9Armed soldiers wheeled and fired en masse on unarmed protestors yet none of them faced legal penalty. The state of Ohio paid compensation. Because the soldiers "feared for their lives." I'm sure it was scary, but maybe we need braver national guardsmen. Official ass covering after official violence is a long tradition.
It's as american as apple pie to use state violence on innocent and largely peaceful protestors and then just pretend it's no big deal. Remember the time unmarked soldiers were pulling people off the street in Portland? Or when peaceful protestors were disbursed with force so the president could take a picture while holding a bible upsidedown? Or Waco. Or the battle of Blair Mountain. Or the Tulsa Race Massacre. Americans constantly turn a blind eye to peaceful or innocent people getting brutally harmed by agents of the state. You will find plenty of people always willing to blame the victims.
Re: The Shootings at Kent State: The Search for Historical Accuracy (1998)
#10The Vietnam War really wrecked America's sense of self, eh? Out in Vietnam, American soldiers were busy burning innocent people in My Lai, back home armed military were shooting students, and then to cap it all, America lost. Absolute hammer to the national identity. For a nation that has prosecuted so many wars before and since, it is quite interesting that this one was such a cultural blow. Even Iraq, fought on the…
The major factors after Vietnam that changed the scenario (such that, as you note, Iraq does not impact the national psyche like Vietnam and Cambodia did) are
1) Vietnam broke the back of the draft system. In the aftermath of that war, after realizing force of law had been used to force Americans to kill and be killed in an invasion for no gain, there has not been the political will to reactivate the draft for any reason other than a direct military assault on home soil. Even after 9/11, calling up a draft for Afghanistan or Iraq would have been absolute political suicide for those who tried. The consequence of this in the American psyche is that soldiers who die in our foreign campaigns are "volunteers" and "knew what they signed up for," so it puts the consequences at arm's length; nobody carrying a rifle into a war zone with an American flag on their armor is doing it despite desperately not wanting to, and Americans are sort of fine with a self-feeding military-industrial complex that generally leaves the home front alone.
(This is, of course, not entirely accurate or true, but it's true enough that most Americans sleep at night while some of their children are stationed in Iraq).
2) The US hasn't lost any subsequent military engagement nearly as badly as it lost Vietnam. Afghanistan comes closest, but the 2,400 soldiers dead in over a decade of Afghanistan operation doesn't hit the psychic shock from 58,000 pressed servicemen dead in the 8 years of Vietnam. During the whole Afghanistan campaign, the US consistently lost more troops to injury and accident (across the whole service) than to enemy action; one doesn't get the same moral outrage of "bodies sent into the meat grinder" if most servicemembers dying while serving are dying in car crashes. And the fundamental shift of rules of engagement away from boots-on-the-ground and towards air supremacy and air-to-ground strikes lowered the body count to the point where far, far fewer Americans personally know a Johnny who didn't come home.