In 1970, the Ohio National Guard killed several protesters at Kent State.
A poll conducted after the shootings found that about a third of Americans didn’t know who bore more blame for the students’ deaths. About 1 in 10 blamed the National Guard.
A majority of respondents blamed the students.
It’s interesting to consider that response at this moment, given the protests at Columbia University in New York — also the site of large protests during the Vietnam War — and on other college campuses. Views of the protests on campuses and elsewhere vary widely, often depending on opinions of the Israeli military operations in Gaza that triggered the demonstrations.
If we look back at the demonstrations during the Vietnam War, though — protests focused on opposition to a military engagement now broadly regarded as a mistake — we see widespread hostility to the protesters, particularly college students.