Kent State University reached the apex of notoriety with Ohio State National Guards's killing of four students on May 4, 1970. Immediately, views became polarized -- either "They got what was coming to them" or "The soldiers were murderers." But matters are rarely so simple. The events of the preceding year at Kent State were typical of those experienced on other campuses. The killings could happen anywhere. There was a horrifying inevitability to the tragedy at Kent State; only the precise form this would take could not be predicted. We had often traversed the university battlegrounds. Many of the causes and some of the answers to campus wars had come to our attention. We had advantages in understanding the events. Unwittingly, our research had occurred during the three years prior to the gunfire. One of us, the editor of the campus newpaper, had come to Kent in 1966.   The other of us, a Harvard Law School-trained lawyer, had come to Kent in 1967 as a professor, after years of legislative and federal court practice in Washington. He was born and bred in Cleveland, Ohio; he was a Shaw High graduate in East Cleveland.  He entered college in September of 1950 and graduated with honors from Kent State in June of 1953.  There was no silver spoon.  It is through the latter's eyes that the events, causes, and solutions are set forth, for he had been a teacher, administrator and observer of most of what took place during the 18 months of campus strife. For months he played an integral role behind the scenes. His role in 1968-1969 was to direct the University's reactions to the protests of those years. He did this at the behest of Bob White. If any two people tried harder to help Kent State during this period other than President White and Dr. Bob Matson, I don't know them. They get my honorary doctorates. It has been necessary to exhume a few academic skeletons and to cast doubt upon the competence of some men. In so doing, the complexity of the challenge and the good faith of most must be recognized. We have tried to avoid personalities or the pettiness which infects various individuals on any campus.

Barclay D. McMillen

William Armstrong

Kent, Ohio

January, 1971

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