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On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. The impact of the shootings was dramatic. The event triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close. H. R. Haldeman, a top aide to President Richard Nixon, suggests the shootings had a direct impact on national politics. In The Ends of Power, Haldeman (1978) states that the shootings at Kent State began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration. Beyond the direct effects of our May 4, the shootings have certainly come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that so sharply divided the country during the Vietnam War era.

A deep generational divide, anti-war protests on college campuses and a looming Chicago Democratic convention invite comparisons between today’s protests against Israel’s attacks in Gaza and the movement against the Vietnam War.  The 54th anniversary of the Kent State University shooting last Saturday, marks the day when the Ohio National Guard troops sent to quell campus protests shot 13 students, killing four and unleashing a surge of unrest across the country.

The campus protests over the past two weeks differ in both scale and motivation. Student bodies have changed, as has the Democratic Party. But given the rematch incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, faces with Republican Donald Trump, they could hold political sway.

There are no U.S. troops fighting in Israel’s war in Gaza, but many U.S. citizens have lost family members there. Israel’s assault on Gaza was triggered by the October 7 attack by Islamist Hamas militants, which by its tallies killed 1,200 with 253 taken hostage. The subsequent Israeli bombardment has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians according to Palestinian medics, and displaced the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

Students at dozens of schools across the U.S. have rallied or camped out to oppose Israel’s war in Gaza, demanding institutions stop doing business with companies that support the war. Police have arrested over 2,000 protesters.

The growing death toll in Gaza and images of the widespread destruction there have swayed public opinion, with support for Israel’s military assault dropping from 50% in a November Gallup poll to 36% in late March.

By 1970, the Vietnam protests had grown in size and intensity, with some rallies attracting tens and even hundreds of thousands of people, said Kevin Kruse, a professor at Princeton University. Many students were personally affected given the draft. Some of those protests were also violent, unlike the largely peaceful demonstrations seen thus far in response to Israel’s war in Gaza, he said.

“The night before the shooting, they burned down the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) building. This wasn’t a bunch of students sitting in tents on the lawn,” he said.

Abbas Alawieh, a former senior congressional aide and community organizer who helped lead Michigan’s “Uncommitted” campaign, said the party’s leadership was at grave risk of repeating the mistakes of the Vietnam era. “In 1968, one of the great failures of the party establishment was that they ignored anti-war youth and continued the horrific war in Vietnam and alienated young voters, and I feel like they’re at risk of doing the same thing,” he said.

A great man once said, “History always repeats itself.  And if you fail to learn the lessons of history, you are condemned to repeat them.”

Alan Clark is a retired US Army Colonel, former Chief Technology Officer, Past District Governor of Rotary International, radio host and general manager, and holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. His editorials have been published by Lakeway Publishers, Inc., and he is the author of several books and monographs. He was the recipient of awards for his editorials by the UT/Tennessee Press Association in 2019, 2021, and 2022.