Tuesday, May 5, 1970, front page: Antiwar demonstrations turn violent

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Campuses Erupt; Four Kent State Students Killed

By Victor L. Simpson

Associated Press Writer

Four students were killed and 11 other person were wounded at Kent State University in Ohio Monday when National Guardsmen broke up an unauthorized rally. President Nixon said the incident should remind everyone that "when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy."

Meanwhile a continuing wave of antiwar demonstrations, focusing in U.S. involvement in Cambodia, swept many of the nation's colleges.

More than 1,000 police and National Guardsmen were sent into the College Park, Md., area on an alert basis in connection with University of Maryland disorders. Although the troops reportedly had not moved onto the campus, hundreds of police used riot gas to break up a crowd of about 1,000 antiwar demonstrators who were blocking U.S. 1 Monday night.

The administration of the university agreed to a one-day moratorium of classes today to allow a discussion of "developing national and international events."

National Guardsmen were put on alert because of trouble at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where dissidents have occupied the ROTC building.

The presidents of 30 colleges and universities signed a telegram urging the President to bring a rapid end to American military involvement in Southeast Asia and seeking an immediate meeting with him.

The telegram, drafted and released by James M. Hester, president of New York University, said, in part, "We implore you to consider the incalculable dangers of an unprecedented alienation of America's youth and to take immediate action to demonstrate unequivocally your determination to end the war quickly."

Hundreds of students at other colleges boycotted classes and plans were announced for student-faculty strikes today and Wednesday.