November 19, 2006
by Steve Hammons

The draft, casualties and the Kent State shootings

With the Iraq war continuing, the lists of dead and wounded getting longer and protests about the war growing stronger, it seems like time to revisit that era.

A key event during the Vietnam war period was the Kent State University shootings a little over thirty-five years ago.

For those too young to remember or for those who didn't think it was important enough to pay attention to, on May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on students at Kent State. Four students were killed and nine wounded. Some of the students were protesting, some were just standing around, one was an ROTC cadet.

The National Guard had been called out by Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes after many state universities in Ohio and nationwide had been rocked by anti-Vietnam war protests that spring.

Then Rhodes shut down the campuses of the state universities and students went home early that spring.

The Vietnam war had been raging for several years by then. The death toll of American troops had not yet reached the final tally of over 58,000, but it was climbing day by day. American troops were returning home severely injured and many were traumatized by what they had experienced in Vietnam.

Young men from age 18 into their mid-twenties were being drafted against their will into the Army, under threat of prison sentences if they did not comply.

Interestingly, many of the National Guard troops who were deployed at Kent State may have joined the Guard to avoid being drafted to Vietnam. Unlike the Iraq war, back then, the National Guard was generally a "safe haven" from the draft and Vietnam duty. Now, approximately half the troops in Iraq have been Army National Guard troops. Many Army and Marine reservists are also serving in Iraq.

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The military draft system that had been used throughout the late '60s had changed around 1969 or so. The draft "lottery" system was put into place. Three hundred and sixty-five ping-pong balls, each representing a birthday of the year, were randomly picked on nationwide TV, just like the state gambling "lottos" of today. If you were 18 years old and your birthday was first to be picked, you were going to be drafted. If you were number 365, you probably wouldn't be.

But the Vietnam war was getting closer to the point where it was starting to wind down somewhat. The war continued during the early '70s, though American troops were gradually withdrawn from Vietnam.

The strategy was to train the Vietnamese armed forces to take over. It was called "Vietnamization" of the war effort. After the U.S. finally pulled out completely, the South Vietnamese Army that had been trained collapsed in 1975.

The four Kent State students killed and nine wounded were just some of the millions of casualties of the Vietnam war. Besides that oft-mentioned 58,000 American troops killed, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were wounded, many very severely. Many other troubled Vietnam vets remain homeless today, some virtually abandoned by our society.

Estimates of about three million Vietnamese deaths are often cited, soldiers and civilians. Men, women and children. And their wounded. Vietnamese children still reportedly suffer from the chemical warfare substance Agent Orange and unexploded landmines and bombs.

Over 58,000 Americans killed and hundreds of thousands wounded in Vietnam. Over 2,000 killed and over 10,000 troops wounded in Iraq.

Maybe it is useful to think of it as "friendly fire" or "fratricide." Killing our own youth, and sending our own troops to die and be wounded in highly questionable wars. Killing our own.

Technorati Tags: Vietnam, War, Kent State, Resistance, Protest, Antiwar

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Steve Hammons [send him email] has worked as a journalist, editor, counselor, juvenile probation peace officer, public safety urgent-response specialist, teacher, instructor and US Government researcher. He graduated from Ohio University with studies in communications/journalism, health education/psychology and pre-law. Hammons's two novels, Mission into Light and Light's Hand, tell the story of a US joint-service military and intelligence research team investigating emerging special topics.

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