Tape ‘Reveals Order’ to Shoot Vietnam Protesters
WASHINGTON - The command, as Alan Canfora heard it on a 37-year-old audio recording recently discovered in a government archive, appeared to leave no room for doubt. “Right here. Get set. Point. Fire.” Then came 13 seconds of gunfire.
When it ended, four students were dead and nine injured, and the shootings at Kent State University became engraved in America’s collective memory as one of the most painful days of the Vietnam era.
Yesterday, Mr Canfora, who was among the nine students wounded on that day, demanded a new investigation into the shootings at Kent State in Ohio, saying it was time to settle conclusively what led the contingent of National Guard troops to open fire on unarmed student protesters. 
“There has been a 37-year cover-up at Kent State. The commanding officers have long denied there was a verbal command to fire. They put the blame on the triggermen,” Mr Canfora told the Guardian.
He said he wants the FBI to use new technology to analyse the recording. He also said he planned to post an audio clip of the recording on two websites.
Mr Canfora, who was 21 years old at the time of the shootings, was barely 60 metres away from the Guards when they opened fire. He was shot in the wrist.
“They stopped, turned, raised the weapons, began to shoot and continued to shoot for 13 seconds,” he said. “It was like a firing squad.”
His life was transformed by the events that day. One of his friends was among the dead, and he has devoted much of his time over the last 37 years trying to bring the Ohio National Guard and the federal authorities to account for the killings.
The Guard has always claimed that no order was given to open fire, and there is speculation that the students were cut down after one of the troops panicked, triggering a volley of gunfire.
Although eight guardsmen were indicted, no one was ever prosecuted, and the episode exposed the deep disdain of the Nixon administration for dissenters. The families of the 13 killed and wounded pursued a civil suit against the state governor and the National Guard, which was eventually settled out of court.
The materials from that civil suit were eventually stored in the archives at Yale University, where Mr Canfora recently rediscovered a 30-minute recording of the protest.
The recording was made by a fellow student, Terry Strubbe, who placed an old-fashioned reel-to-reel tape recorder on the window sill of his dorm room, which overlooked the protests. Mr Strubbe, who has declined to speak to reporters, still has the original recording in a bank safety deposit box.
However, a spokesman for Mr Strubbe, Joseph Bendo, told the Guardian yesterday he was unsure whether there were sounds of an order to open fire on the original recording.
“It was never heard on our version of the tape, but maybe nobody ever listened. It’s unusual that nobody has heard it before in 37 years. Other people have heard this tape in the past, and maybe they weren’t listening for it,” he said.
But the power of America’s memories of that day are undeniable. Nearly two generations after the shootings at Kent State, it now seems unthinkable that the National Guard could ever use live ammunition against students.
The events of that day were relived endlessly in shocking images of teenagers crouching over the corpses of their fellow students in the US heartland. They also led to protests which radiated across the country, shutting down hundreds of college campuses, and forcing Richard Nixon to decamp Washington for Camp David.
To hear the recording go to Guardian.co.uk/world and follow the link
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
“Ready, aim, fire” would be standard military jargon, not “get set, point, fire”. However, back then, the National Guard was a lot looser than regular Army and there wasn’t a lot of adherence to standard military procedure.
Having just listened a few times on my crummy computer speakers, the only word I could make out was “point”.
In any case, as much as there was an injustice done by not prosecuting anyone, and with a settled civil case, we have much more pressing 2007 issues to attend to. If there was no “war” on, if we did not have The Great Pretender destroying young lives now, I’d be all in favor of re-opening the Kent State Massacre investigation.
But for now, I prefer to stay on point…support our troops by bringing them home, protect the Iraqis who helped us during this folly, and can the Imbecile(s) who put us in this position.
Unlike the Kent State Massacre: call those in power to be responsible to the country and to pay the price for their actions.
I thought we learned somthing from the Vietnam war, but here we are in another big mess in Iraq. I thought it would never happen agian. So could this happen again? It’s not so hard to believe,is it.
I remember this day well!
What a despicable display of ruthless power, not unlike the itchy trigger fingers lurking in the ‘Patriot Act’ shadows of today.
Such is the demise of the innocent voice of dissent, when it reveals the tyrant behind the mask.
Maat, Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Re-open the investigation. Repressing protesters has become brutal science since Kent State. An investigation would bring some needed attention to crowd control weapons being used and planned.
Here are some crowd control accessories…
Like wooden bullets (great for internal bleeding); sting ball grenades; shotfilled bean bags (internal bleeding, blindness, etc.); chemical lasers; a new high-intensity beam of waves that inflict a burning sensation like a light bulb pressed against the skin, or worse; anti-traction substances sprayed on the ground; thermobaric technology causing extended flash, sound, temperature, and pressure conditions to disorient and/or temporarily incapacitate individuals; and on and on…
Viet Nam –> Kent State
Iraq War –> ???
Balto: You’re right that we have a lot of pressing issues that need to be addressed right now. But we are also capable of multi tasking. One of the major threats that we face now is that everything is starting to point to the fact that Bush may declare martial law before he leaves office. And it’s going to look like Kent State all over again. The attrocity of Kent State has to come into focus for those that don’t know about it. It needs to be made clear in everyone’s conscientiousness that our government is capable of opening fire and killing innocent American citizens. The facts of Kent State need to come to light.
The stage is already set for the complete lose of our freedoms. Protesters are already being caged, silenced, and illegally spied upon. Environmental and other protestors are already being classified as “terrorists”. What do you think the next step is?
Rebel Farmer-
Amen!!
It is Pope Bush that is exhibiting problems with multi-tasking skills in his continued effort to prop up all of the lies, as incessant new ones appear each day.
Maat, Best Wishes and Hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
And this should just add to our outrage about the shootings of innocent civilians in Los Angeles (though with so called non-lethal weapons) under direct orders of the LAPD.
It does worry me that there are no articles on Common Dreams about this incident
Rebel Farmer,
I am thinking more along the lines of Balto. Each passing day the current administration kills, murders, maimes, and renders emotionally and mentally scarred for life thousands of young American men and women. Additionally, the same inflictions, only much worse (such as homelessness, disease, mayhem, hunger,and more) are being thrust upon the hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children who never did a thing to deserve the hell they are being subjected to. With all due respect, Rebel Farmer, as much as I would like to see the Kent State debacle settled and those responsible brought to justice, I believe that this moment might not be the right time for addressing the issue because most people in this country are too complacent and pay minimal attention. I believe that momentum is building to bring GW and his accomplices to justice - but only if we keep enough media on it and attention to the matter. Any deviation from addressing the illegalities and war crimes that this administration is responsible for may seriously impede the hard efforts of all those who are daily dedicating many hours to ensure that the so-called commander in chief will himself be brought to justice very soon. sorry about the tirade. no hard feelings I hope.
GOVERNMENT IS ONLY AS HONEST AS ITS MONEY …
Without the unlimited printing of money we would not have IRAQ or BUSH … Do away with the US FEDERAL RESERVE BANK, the WORLD BANK and the IMF !!! These are the same entities that financed Vietnam and impoverish the World today … Get rid of all REPS and DEMS !! The two party aristocracy are the puppets of the bankers … Only bankers profit from our National debt!
Return to the US Constitution by throwing the politico bums and their “T-Bills” into Boston Harbor just like we did to KING GEORGE 200 years ago! Reinstate freedom by breaking the chains of BIG government and BIG banks!
Bush and his generals du jour are idiots … the Muslims already have nukes … its called “Pakistan”! Tick-Tock!!
From Kent State to Iraq to Iran and Pakistan … next “The NeoCon Crusades” … next … the “draft”!
QUESTION AUTHORITY NOW !!! Nothing will change unless you change … PROTEST !! Vote radical … Vote them all out! Vote the DEMS and the REPS out!! Let them know “We The People” Rule …
It bothers me that this story comes from The Guardian. Once again, where is the US mainstream press?
If it was settled out of court-why did they take the settlement if they were unhappy about it?
I think the gov. was unhappy about protesters against the war and was trying to use scare tactics. It worked at tinemon square in China didn’t it?
Bush used the same fear tatics when he was appearing in NY along with his buddy next president wannabe Guliano. He locked up the protestors.
Wepucks distain protestors and resistence. If you do not agree with them you are labeled a terrorist and traitor.
There is no US mainstream press. Read Noam Chomsky’s Understanding Power.
The blame clearly falls on the neo-con, idiot …
Governor Rhodes.
So it goes. When the military gets mixed up in politics…. Besides those troops were desperately exhausted and scared. (Ripe) Some believe they can see an “agent provocateur” in the crowd with a pistol on some film.
Demonstrations are like little concentration camps for criminals to manipulate. (I still go but with my eyes open)
The “not hearing it before” is not that unusual. In a study of the “backmasking” phenomenon (”evil” recording people plant satanic messages backwards on records), replicated by me, a backwards recording of Jaberwocky (”Twas brillig…) contained “saw a girl with a weasel in her mouth”. This is readily discerned by those knowing it is there, but not by those who don’t know what to listen for.
I just recollect that in the aftermath of the Kent State massacre, there was a general feeling that NEVER AGAIN would such a thing come to pass, in our United States.
However, when I see statements, such as “Nearly two generations after the shootings at Kent State, it now seems unthinkable that the National Guard could ever use live ammunition against students”, I can’t help but think…are you kidding me?!
There is not a law, on the books, that the renegade Bush administration doesn’t feel entitled to violate, and, being as there is no prohibition (other than a moral one) against such a thing happening again, why would anyone feel as though there’s no chance of it happening again?
Every time that I walk a picket-line, protesting Bush’s policies, I’m reminded that protesters, during Bush’s presidential campaigns, were physically abused and arrested, merely for exercising their constitutional right to assemble.
Once it is acceptable to violate Constitutional rights, as Bush is granted, under the “Patriot” Act, there becomes a very thin line between physically abusing protesters, and, as they already do, falsely claiming that one, or more, of the protesters “crossed a certain line”, necessitating the implementation of deadly force.
“Nearly two generations after the shootings at Kent State, it now seems unthinkable that the National Guard could ever use live ammunition against students.”
What are you talking about? It would fit right in with the mentality of a certain subclass of military mindset. Remember the article about the relatively recent Ohio National Guard unit that lost so many people in Iraq? They interviewed several returnees and one stated that hunting was no fun anymore because it was a lot more thrilling to kill people. I wonder how many returnees have that same feeling.