Listening to the Strubbe audio tape recording of what transpired that fatal day (May 4, 1970), one can fairly easily trace the sequence of events.

What prompted the guardsmen to fire appears to be their hearing of pistol shots coming from the crowd of protesters. Now given the hostile environment (they got themselves surrounded) any type of nearby gunfire would certainly invite such a retaliatory response. Someone in a officer capacity ordered the Guard to shoot because they believed their troop was in harm’s way. What a bizarre series of events.  

All this time, because of a deliberately botched investigation by the FBI (as with JFK, MLK and RFK), we the American people have been duped into thinking the deaths and injuries of 13 students was the result of some rogue element within the Ohio National Guard where in fact it turns out that an undercover spy sent in by the law-enforcement establishment inadvertently (or perhaps purposely) set off this chain of events when he was discovered by a angry few (who also helped set off the tragedy by their actions).

The Strubbe tape is the Zapruder film (film of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy while his motorcade traveled through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas) of this historic event; something the “authorities” didn’t count on. One has to wonder if there were other audio or even video tapes that recorded this event only to be confiscated by “officials” as they were in Dealey Plaza. All four events have the same common denominator: Do not mess with America’s war machine because the consequences can be deadly.  

Perhaps one day other students (or faculty) will have the courage to come forward to tell what they know or perhaps tell what they were told not to say. Maybe Kent State will have its own “Deep Throat” hero emerge shortly before his or her death so he or she can reveal what truly happened.

Boy, would this make for a great Oliver Stone film; a movie director who is rewarded financially by taking advantage of the lack of accountability by the United States government.  As Colonel Jessup (Jack Nicholson) in “A Few Good Men” shouts “You can’t handle the truth,” the response by the American people must always be “let us decide what truth we can and cannot handle” — otherwise what is the point of the United States Constitution? We must get to the bottom of this tragedy before it is too late. Citizens of this great country: It’s up to you.