"The blame"

the blame

The blame for much of what happened at Kent the past few days rests with Governor Rhodes for his use of the National Guard in the disturbances on the campus.

When the National Guard gets on campus, they simply don't know what to do or how to do it. This was obvious during the disturbances at Ohio State. The rationale seemed to be that if enough tear gas was dispensed, the problems would be solved.

Reports from Kent indicate situations where, in attempting to disperse students, National Guardsmen drove them into corners and against fences, actually making their dispersion impossible.

But as stated before, the blame is not on the National Guard. They are people ordered to deal with a situation that they are not trained to handle--a situation which maybe no one can handle.

A question for Governor Rhodes to sleep on is this--would four people have been killed had he not ordered the National Guard into Kent, and would the situation have spiraled out of control as it did?

Neither of the presidents of Kent State or Case Western asked for the Guard to be sent in. Why did Rhodes do it?