The Homemade Revolution – June 1970

On page 28 of the May Bulletin we supplied details concerning the then recent appearance of Jerry Rubin at Kent State University. Which made it clear that, given the extremely incendiary nature of his remarks, and the enthusiastic reception of those remarks by a huge number of the so-called students, almost anything could happen there. And tragically, it soon did—within just three or four days of the appearance of our bulletin. Here is one Associated Press dispatch of May 8 which provides at least a partly complete report of what actually occurred.

Guard Not To Blame, Kent Student Declares

White River Junction, Vt. (AP) – A student who said he saw four of his classmates killed when National Guard troops fired on demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio on Monday says the Guardsmen were not to blame.

James Young, 20, of White River Junction, said in an interview yesterday with radio station WNRV that the Guardsmen “had to fire to defend their lives. “

Young, who said he watched the incident from a dormitory window 150 yards away, said the students were an angry mob.

“I really believe the crowd would have – if they had tried hand to hand to fight their way out – would have beaten them to death, ” Young said.

“The news reports sort of gave the impression that the National Guard was entirely wrong,” he said “But that’s not true. They were defending their lives. They’ had no alternative but to shoot.”

He said that from his vantage point, he saw about 30 Guardsmen come up a hill from a green and down the other side to a football field where they confronted more than 2,000 students.

The Guardsmen formed a protective circle with tear gas launchers in the middle, Young said.

“I saw one tear gas grenade tossed back and forth several times between students and Guardsmen, ” he said.

Young said 50 to 100 students were throwing rocks, pieces of concrete and lengths of pipe at the troops.

“And they were only about 20 feet away from the soldiers,” he said.

The essential truthfulness of this account has been confirmed from many sources. It has also been reliably reported that at least one of the four unfortunate students was not killed by the troops at all but by snipers within, or mixed among, the students themselves. For the bullets found in the bodies of some of the killed or wounded could not have come from any guns in possession of the National Guard. So, if you want it straight and in plain language: This whole affair was a brazenly revolutionary riot, deliberately made worse by pro-Communist agitators and agents provocateurs, among a crowd of sophomoric young ignoramuses who had already been brainwashed by pro-Communist professors into making criminal fools out of themselves.

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The main point of this present dissertation, however, is that the American people are fed up with all of these protests and riots. Which is exactly as was planned from the beginning by the fomenters of such demonstrations. It is what gives government the desired chance to send in federal troops and take charge of “law enforcement.” The excuse will be avidly seized despite the fact that local police forces, if allowed to do so and if they dared, could nip almost every one of these riots in the bud before they ever became anything more than the criminal activities of a few agitators. When two or three (or a dozen) pro-Communist hoodlums set out to organize a riot, all the police have to do – and would do, if not afraid of the criticism and harassment to which they would be subjected later – is to arrest the agitators, and tell the gathering mob, in positive language, to go home. With a few guns and billy sticks visible to back up the command.

Under these circumstances, almost every such mob, without its leaders, would very soon disperse and go home – or to the nearest beer parlors. Because ALL mobs are composed of cowards. The members of these mobs are there, and finally get inflamed into committing all kinds of crimes, because they are cowards. They do not have the basic knowledge, or strength of character, or courage, to carry out sensible protests on their own about anything. They must have the reassurance, about their supposed beliefs, of other gregarious fools like themselves. And they must have the courage imparted to them, by a huge mass of other cowards, before they can do the marching and commit the crimes which get their actions into the newspapers and make them feel important.

The answer to the whole situation has been well stated by a former police officer of long experience whom we have quoted before: “Take the handcuffs off the police and put them back on the criminals where they belong.” But this solution, though very simple and accurate, is difficult to carry out.

Because you have all the propaganda and pressures and cunning maneuvers of the Communists – especially those in government — arrayed against it. Also, we are well aware that the Communist program for fomenting revolution – or the semblance thereof – has already been carried so far, with so much encouragement behind it from hypocritical politicians, as to make the use of troops an actual necessity on some occasions. We intend to be realists in every battle of this war, and to face things as they are rather than as we wish they were.

(a) Nevertheless, the objective of our members, and all of our fellow citizens whom we can bring to a sufficient understanding of what is happening, should be clear. With regard to student riots, “civil rights” riots, “anti-war” riots, and all other Communist-plotted “protests,” our basic recommendation still holds. Do all you can to give your local police the backing and the power to keep these “protests” from developing into riots, or to control and subdue those that do. Keep all enforcement of “law and order” in the hands of local police as completely as you can, or see that it is restored to their hands as quickly as possible after some disturbance too large for them has been quelled. For every step in the other direction serves as one more nail, driven by the Communists, in the coffin for American freedom.

(b) As for the college students themselves, who are being so mercilessly used as pawns in this Communist game, we stand emphatically by our former advice to all patriotic parents: “Straighten ’em out or take ’em out.” You have nothing to gain and all to lose, for both generations, by subjecting your sons and daughters to four years of vile Communist indoctrination and influence in the name of a “college education.” And if you are thinking about the purely commercial value of a college diploma, don’t. No successful business – not even those now run by Communists at the top – wants to give any important responsibilities to drug addicts, or sexual debauchees, or moral nihilists, or bearded bums.