Kairos of Nixon-Nazi Comparison

The political involvement of college students thrived in the frantic America of the 60s as enrollment in higher education reached an all time high. There are two powerful moments of exigence that prompted the ideas behind the 1970 poster and others like it: the Kent State massacre and Nixon's reaction to the resulting student strike. Nearing the end of the Vietnam War, Nixon announced that yet another set of invasions against Vietnam would take place. In the four days after this news broke, 500+ Kent State students rallied against Nixon's continued war efforts. In the final day (May 4, 1970), the Ohio State National Guard fired into a crowd of unarmed students in an effort to diffuse the commotion, killing 4 and injuring 9. This physical attempt to censor students that were only trying to insert themselves into America's political sphere triggered a nationwide student strike. Nixon unsuccessfully tried to commiserate with the students in a statement five days after the shootings, but was reported to otherwise believe that anti-war protesters were "pawns of foreign communists". The president's unwavering disdain for any opposition and inhumane lack of sympathy for the martyrs or their causes evokes not an image of an ideal American president, but a war-mongering fascist.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 7:22 PM

    I was unaware of the Kent State incident and Nixon's relation to it so thank you for that. I agree with you that these events boosted change. It's absurd the way Nixon reacted to it. This resembled one of the most initial student protests against the government during the time period. It definitely hurt people's view of Nixon as well

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 7:23 PM

    In the 1960s there was a lot of controversy in schools over war protests. Seeing a president get involved and accuse students as communists is a shock whether it be today or in the past. It's no surprise that when the National Guard got involved in the protest it caused an uproar throughout the nation. However, the students stood their ground in the long run to support anti-war which proves how passionate the were over their beliefs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 8:21 PM

    The Kent State massacre was a terrible event and it caused national shock. It also caused a very famous song by Crosby, Stills and Nash, "Ohio" which was a criticism of the shooting and in general of Nixon.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9vMBBe10

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 8:59 PM

    The events at Kent State were magnified because there were so many movements and arguments against Nixon's actions. It was also important that during this time, many groups of people were fighting for more social freedoms, and when the National Guard forcibly prohibited those students' freedom of speech, there was an uproar of disapproval. This triggered continued nationwide movements such as the Hippie movement.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownOctober 5, 2017 at 7:11 AM

    I was first made aware of this tragedy by the song "Ohio" by Crosby, Still and Nash. Looks like Ben already put a link up. This poster ties with the song, both make Nixon out to be some kind of an evil overlord, rushing in to stop any sort of retaliation against his reign.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nixon Nazi - Audience

The "Nixon Nazi" poster is a protest poster from 1970 posted on a college campus. It is clear that the artist's intent was to capture the hearts of any student that saw this poster. The initial sight that is seen is the infamous symbol of the Nazi party from World War II on its signature blaring red background. The use of this symbol was to grab the eye and immediately incite negative feelings such as anger or deep pity. The next element of this poster is what the author put in to spark more thinking on the topic. The element is the appearance of (then) President Nixon's name four times; replacing the four thick inner bands of the original symbol. Considering that the audience would be passing, possibly busy, college students, this layered attempt works in the artist's favor. When walking by this poster, a college student may do a double take, stop to look at the poster, and proceed to take in the poster in its entirety. The artist intent shows in the poster and t...
Read more

Ethos on UC Berkeley

The ethos in UC Berkeley is difficult to recognize due to the overall goal of a news article is to release as little bias as possible and reflect all of the main events through evidence. A piece of intrinsic ethos was shown when Phil Helsel released information of Yiannopoulos’ critics sharing he has a “history” of making “offensive comments related to race and religion”. Phil Helsel is a reporter and editor for NBC News, where a majority of the audience is leaning left. According to Linkedin , Helsel is in the “greater Los Angeles area”, a well populated area full of liberals. He has also reported from the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Staten Island Advance, where he covered breaking news for criminal justice, environmental issues and education. Due to him being involved in numerous New York news agencies before NBC, one can predict that Helsel is from New York, another state populated with those leaning left. According to MSNBC , he has done numerous articles in relations t...
Read more