3. The Vietnam War was seen on television news nearly every day
Vietnam was the first televised war. Nightly newscasts and network specials presented images of American dead and wounded troops, body bags, bombed-out or burned buildings. The images of the horrors of the war fed the protests in the United States. They too were broadcast, deepening the divide which separated the nation. Protests increased when Nixon expanded the war into Cambodia and Laos. Many of the largest protests over the war occurred on college campuses. One such protest was organized at Kent State University in Ohio upon news of Nixon’s ordered raids into Cambodia by American bombers. Ohio governor James Rhodes ordered the National Guard to the campus after two days of protests.
Rhodes went to Kent and held a press conference, calling the protestors “un-American”. He added, in a desk-pounding speech, “They’re the worst type of people that we harbor in America”. The next day, after tear gas failed to disperse a crowd gathered for a scheduled protest, the National Guard opened fire, killing 4 students and wounding another 9, leaving one paralyzed. A Presidential Commission which investigated the shooting called it, “unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable”. Some justified the shooting and claimed the protestors were outside agitators, but all of the victims were registered students in good standing at Kent State University.