What Is Propaganda?

Tite

Kent State University – May 1970

• Listen to the song and look at the images

– Song is “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

• What is the song about? What happens?

• Who seems to be blamed for the event?

• Who seems more innocent?

Kent State University – May 1970

• What else is going on in 1970?

– 1968 - Robert Kennedy and MLK Jr. are both assassinated

– 1969 – First soldiers drafted for Vietnam

– 1970 - Protests to the Vietnam War are at their peak

• Nixon expanded the war and invaded Cambodia

• Richard Nixon is President of the US

Kent State University – May 1970

• May 1, 1970

– Big war protest

– Riots start downtown around Midnight

– Police arrive, are harassed, and disperse the gathering

Kent State University – May 1970

• May 2, 1970

– Mayor of Kent declares a state of emergency

– Ohio National Guard arrive

– ROTC building on campus is set on fire

– Students/Protesters clash with police and firemen

Kent State University – May 1970

• May 3, 1970

– 1,000 Guardsmen on campus

– 8:00 PM – Protest rally

– Guardsmen break up rally with tear gas

• 10 guardsmen injured

• A protestor is stabbed with a bayonet

Kent State University – May 1970

• Governor of Ohio says...

• “They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America.”

Kent State University – May 1970

• May 4, 1970

– 2,000 students attend a war protest

– Guardsmen try to break up protest with tear gas

– Guardsmen march towards students

– Some soldiers open fire on students

Kent State University – May 1970

• May 4, 1970 (cont.)

– 4 students killed

– 2 were uninvolved in the war protests

– 9 students injured• 1 paralyzed

– Debate continues over whether soldiers were ordered to shoot

Kent State University – May 1970

• Now reconsider your opinion of the Kent State students and the National Guardsmen...

– Were the students entirely innocent?

– Were the soldiers entirely to blame?

– Did the song twist the truth at all?

Boston Massacre - 1770

• Look at “History Through Art” on p98.

• Answer the Skillbuilder questions

– What advantages to the soldiers have?

– How could this help the resistance against England?

Boston Massacre - 1770

• How is Revere's engraving a piece of propaganda?

– How would you define a massacre?

– Do you think the picture is totally accurate?

– Where do you think Paul Revere stretched the truth or omitted certain details?

Comparing Boston and Kent

The Kent State shootings occurred almost exactly two hundred years after the Boston Massacre...

Are there any similarities between the two? Are there any differences? Do you think that riot control tactics should have

changed over those 200 years? Do you think Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

could more easily spread their propaganda than Paul Revere?