Kent State: An American Tragedy

Historian VanDeMark (Road to Disaster) elicits a startling “belated confession” from former platoon sergeant Matt McManus in this fine-grained examination of the Kent State massacre. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on student antiwar demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The slayings triggered national outrage and decades of scrutiny over why the troops fired. VanDeMark’s account hinges on interviews with McManus, who claims he shouted an order to “fire in the air” that was misheard as an order to fire on the demonstrators. (He previously admitted giving such an order only after the shooting started.) In addition to showing how this possibility fits with witness testimony, VanDeMark also uses McManus’s account and his own exhaustive research into the shooting’s aftermath to paint both the guardsmen and the students as victims of a malfunctioning system. It’s a somewhat forced bit of bothsidesing that gives an uncomfortable pass to McManus for his years of evasiveness (“People don’t withhold the truth unless the whole truth is too much to bear,” VanDeMark asserts, a forgiving truism contradicted by McManus’s own tacit acknowledgment that he lied to avoid consequences). But VanDeMark’s thorough documentation of events is worthwhile, especially for its urgent warnings (“This could happen again easily, if students decide [they’ve had enough of] government put up for sale to the highest bidder,” one survivor says). It’s a significant discovery about an enduring mystery. (Aug.)