If you want to skim my words, that’s fine, but skip to the last paragraph. Read what a member of the National Guard published in the Akron Beacon Journal at Kent State that day has to say.
I’ve been writing about it for years, and having interviewed many of the participants on both sides, I feel well-versed in the incident. However, the Beacon Journal account contained a couple of new statements to me. Again, take the time to read it. This year, I have already posted with revisions to something I wrote six years ago.
There’s always been a rush to judgment to blame the Guard, which is erroneous. The university won’t let it go, and I’m not suggesting it should. But there needs to be balance. Consider 2020, fifty years later.
The 50th remembrance date was not intended to heal but to reopen wounds, as the choice of speakers, including Jane Fonda, and the committee were highly biased toward those who knew the players. The university was adamant that Fonda would appear. I worked to have her removed, but the university was adamant.
Fonda was to receive a fee of $83,000 to speak. The university that Fonda’s speaking fee is consistent with those of other speakers at KSU and other universities. Except Fonda was not like other speakers. She was despised by many for her activities during the Vietnam War. KSU recognized this, stating, “She is equally open about reconciling with some of her past actions while still maintaining true to her convictions and beliefs.”
The university was referring to a 1972 Fonda made to Vietnam where she was photographed seated on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun clothed as an NVR or VC combatant, smiling and laughing. The photo outraged Americans, earning her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.”
Despite opposition to Fonda’s appearance, KSU said Fonda was a “fitting voice of activism that spans many generations, young and old, and aligns with the pillars and vision of the 50th commemoration.”
During her two-week trip, Fonda spoke frequently on Hanoi Radio. When the Nixon administration later publicized stories of torture of returning POWs, Fonda said that those making such claims were “hypocrites and liars and pawns.” In 1988, she made a non-apology apology, and seventeen years later, she said, 60 Minutes, that she had no regrets.
My opposition was that the program had activists from then and now, and there was no open discussion of the opposing perspective. Ohio Secretary of State, a veteran, was willing. However, the appearance never happened due to the pandemic in 2020. Fonda did receive her speaker’s fee.
Even today, KSU is tying current campus unrest when there is no comparison. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe my old school was making a comparison between then, and what is happening on campuses today, like the student I saw today demanding humanitarian aid from the university. in the form of food and drink unless the policy of the school is dehydration and starvation of protesters.
https://record-courier.com/story/news/2024/05/01/kent-state-university-massacre-ohio-national-guardsman-reflects-1970-anti-war-protests-tragedy/73413249007/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3NJpZa_TvqN-GBBDMS1R6iqw-7XkTfCCwRFcacAu2EfPjsTcdumojockQ_aem_AYfNDquy1b3kezU-nzs2RBvDe4gSRVOlmePqCuYFlvrOtcVIggNYNHmFcpCMK5daMnTIgSKMYgfQY1gmFtpj5dxc