Historian Brian VanDeMark vividly remembers hearing stories about the May 4, 1970, shootings as a youngster growing up in Houston. He was almost 10 years old then, but the tragedy made an indelible mark on his consciousness, contributing to his writing of his new book, “Kent State: An American Tragedy.”
VanDeMark, a United States Naval Academy historian, will participate in the panel discussion An American Tragedy: Kent State on the Page sponsored by Kent State University’s May 4 Visitors Center and Department of History. The event will occur during Kent State’s Homecoming weekend, from 10 a.m. to noon on Sept. 27, in 137 Bowman Hall. This event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.
Kent State became internationally known on May 4, 1970, after members of the Ohio National Guard shot 13 students on campus during a demonstration. Four students were killed, and nine others were wounded, including one who was permanently paralyzed from his injury.
The panel will also feature authors Thomas M. Grace, who was wounded during the shooting, and Gregory S. Wilson. Grace is a historian at Erie Community College and author of “Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties.” Wilson is a historian at the University of Akron and author of “Above the Shots: An Oral History of the Kent State Shootings.” The moderator for the discussion is Kevin Adams, Ph.D., associate professor of history at Kent State. The authors’ books will be available for purchase at a signing following the panel.
Book Seeks to Answer Questions
VanDeMark told Kent State Today that his book addresses some of the unanswered questions about the shooting by giving the perspective of the Ohio National Guardsmen who were involved with the shooting and in effect retelling of the May 4 shootings.
“I didn’t live it like people who are 10 years older than me, but it is part of my personal memories. That made it vivid and compelling. “It was a matter of trying to answer the unanswered questions. It was a matter of trying to answer the unanswered questions. Who gave the order to fire and why. I hope it provides closure for other people. It also makes the whole thing intimately more tragic.”
VanDeMark’s book seeks to illuminate the causes and consequences of the fatal clash between Vietnam War protestors and the National Guard. It gives readers context of the dissent in the country during the 1960s. VanDeMark draws on new research and interviews, including, for the first time, the perspective of the Guardsmen who were there that day.
“National Guardsmen who were there that day and fired had rarely ever discussed what happened or what they did and why they did it,” VanDeMark said. "It’s like trying to tell a story and only having one piece of the puzzle when it’s a two-part puzzle. The book enables readers to understand the tragedy in 360 degrees. And it helps people to better understand the event and demystifies things. It demythologizes a lot of things in a way which makes the story more human but also instantly more tragic.”
Political Division Never Ceased
VanDeMark cautioned that the division that exists now was initially created during the Vietnam War, and it went underground during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The polarization never went away, he said, and has resurfaced in recent years.
“The parallels between then and now are painfully obvious, dangerously obvious,” VanDeMark said. He added that his book will make people aware of all the “risks, dangers and tragedies that can come with a culturally and politically divided country that reaches the point of explosion.”
For students exercising their right to free assembly and freedom of speech, he said it should be done in an appropriate, reasoned and non-confrontational manner. There should also be caution to consider the consequences of deploying the National Guard to deal with student protests.
“The bottom line is even though they are trained, and equipment is far more sophisticated than it was in 1970, they are still effectively trained to fight, kill and win wars. It is all about force. I do not think projecting force is a particularly thoughtful response to student protests.”
VanDeMark grew up and attended college in Texas and went to graduate school in California. He now lives in Maryland and has worked in the history department of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis since 1990.
VanDeMark is the author of several books on American history, including co-authoring Robert McNamara's No. 1 best-selling Vietnam war memoir, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” which became the basis of Errol Morris's Academy Award-winning documentary film, "The Fog of War."
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