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Morning News

Kent State Anniversary: 30 Years Ago Today, National Guard Opens Fire on Anti-Vietnam Protesters

Aired May 4, 2000 - 9:11 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In Ohio today, they're marking an emotional anniversary: 30 years ago today, National Guard troops opened fire on anti-Vietnam War protesters at Kent State University, killing four students. Today, nine wounded survivors will return to the campus for the first time since the confrontation.

CNN's Gary Tuchman has more on the shootings that stunned the nation and galvanized the anti-war movement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an image etched in our minds, a reminder of how the Vietnam War came home via Ohio's Kent State University. It was a Kent State student who took this picture. His name is John Filo.

JOHN FILO, FORMER KENT STATE STUDENT: My initial reaction was to flee. Stopped myself, then there was this woman run up, kneel down beside him.

TUCHMAN: The woman was actually a 15-year-old girl screaming in horror as Kent State student Jeffrey Miller lay dying, one of four students killed on May 4, 1970 by Ohio National Guard troops called to campus to quell Vietnam War protests.

BOB CARPENTER, FORMER KENT STATE STUDENT: It was like, oh my God, I can't believe it. So everybody came out and there was kids laying on the ground, running all over the place.

TUCHMAN: Bob Carpenter was the news director of the Kent State student radio station. Breathlessly, he told his listeners on that day of National Guardsmen opening fire, claiming their lives were in danger. But Jeffrey Miller was 85 yards away when he was shot and Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandy Scheuer were even farther.

CARPENTER: There isn't a day in my life that doesn't go by that I don't wake up or have some conscious thought of this. I was in Vietnam twice before. I didn't have the fear that I had on this campus: helicopters swooping down, tear gas, bullets. You know, it was a scary thing. And still I get goose bumps even talking about it right to this moment.

TUCHMAN: Other Kent State students at the time also took photos of the carnage, like Paul Tople.

PAUL TOPLE, FORMER KENT STATE STUDENT: When I saw the students in their pools of blood, I said, this is it. It's got to stop. This -- the protests, the war, everything, this has gone too far.

TUCHMAN: John Darnell was also a student photographer.

JOHN DARNELL, FORMER KENT STATE STUDENT: I like to call it murder. I find no justification and no justice.

TUCHMAN: Protesters were angrier than ever right after the shootings, and faculty members were warned by the National Guard's commanders, students must disperse immediately. It was then that the late Professor Glenn Frank made an emotional speech to students that likely prevented more bloodshed. It was recorded by radio reporter Carpenter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MAY 4, 1970)

GLENN FRANK, KENT STATE PROFESSOR: I don't care whether you've never listened to anyone before in your lives, I am begging you right now, if you don't disperse right now, they're going to move in and there can only be a slaughter. Would you please listen to me? Jesus Christ, I don't want to be a part of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: The students, including nine who were wounded, then evacuated. Alan Frank is the son of that professor and was also in the crowd that day.

ALAN FRANK, GLENN FRANK'S SON: Absolutely saved my life and hundreds of others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCHMAN: The ghosts of 1970 remain today. You're looking right now at the parking lot at Kent State where all four victims died. And right now, I'm standing right above the parking lot on a hill next to ground zero, next to the pagoda where the National Guardsmen stood on that day, May 4, 1970, where at least 28 of them fired shots from that pagoda. The gunshots ripped down into the parking lot right below me. The beginning of the parking lot is 85 feet away, the back of it's 200 feet away, and that's where all four victims were killed that day.

And right next to me, a sculpture that was also here in 1970. And as you can see inside this sculpture, a bullet hole remains from an M-1 rifle. The 30-year anniversary comes exactly at 12:24 p.m. Eastern time today.

This is Gary Tuchman, CNN, live in Kent, Ohio.

KAGAN: Gary, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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