Customer Reviews

The Kent State Coverup

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This is the best out of the 4 books I read on the Kent State Massacre. One of the lawyers involved in the civil suit against the National Guard is one of the co-authors.The Michener book is badly dated(before rubber bullets A.D. for riot control). The legal issues are deeply explored and the villain in this book is primarily toted as the judge at the civil trial whose pronouncements most definitely favored the National Guard. At times this judges decisions are purly just plain outrageous according to the author of the book. i had to agree. Mitchener tries to be balanced but overlooks that the National guard had real bullets while the students had some rocks and the middle finger.Rubber bullets might have been justified had they had them at that time.All of the US Army experts used by Kelsner at the civil tial said rifle butts and bayonets would have been sufficient without the live 30 caliber M-1 rounds. Mitchner in his books tries to somewhat justify the shootings and with the advent and use of rubber bullets and better riot gases,his rationalizations in favor of the guard make hime look somewhat like a "skinflint". It's today called the "Kent State Massacre" and not the "Triumph of the ONG at Kent State.The book proved to me it was all a case of the Guard using "excessive force" on some kids away from home for the first time.