A DOUBLE-BARRELED BOOK PACKAGE EVERYONE SHOULD READ

 

Former BJ managing editor Bob Giles will appear at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 3 in the Hudson Library’s Historical Society series’ An Evening With Bob Giles to promote his book, “When Truth Mattered,” Bob’s account of how the BJ handled the Kent State slaughter by the Ohio National guard to earn one of its five Pulitzer Prizes.

 

Bob will be in conversation with New York Times best-selling author Doug Stanton, whose books include “In Harm’s Way,” about the crew of the USS Indianapolis who survived days in shark-infesting water after their ship was sunk by the Japanese in World War II. That subject is of special interest to me because one of the survivors, who died about a year ago, was Sam Lopez of my Monongah, West Virginia birthplace.

 

Stanton’s “Horse Soldiers” was the basis for the “12 Strong” movie starring Chris Hemsworth.

 

I was in Bob’s office with Al Fitzpatrick and co-assistant State Desk editor with me Harry Liggett when they announced that State Desk editor Pat Englehart, also sitting there, would be put in charge of the BJ’s coverage of the Kent State shootings that killed 4 and wounded 9 while Harry and I handled the day-to-day State Desk operations. They couldn’t have made a better choice. Pat was a Tasmanian devil and whirling dervish combined when it came to grabbing a project by the throat. Pat filled a BJ storage room to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of photos and notes related to the Kent State shooting and the aftermath.

 

It was Ray Redmond who had the biggest break in the investigation literally dropped in his lap when the Portage County prosecuting attorney left the room after making it clear that the FBI investigation of the shootings was on the desk. The FBI concluded that the Ohio National Guard, fueled by Governor Jim Rhodes rhetoric that stirred public anger at non-existent “Chicago radicals,” was wrong in opening fire. Mainly because too-young and inexperienced Guardsmen were on that hill of horror and the nearest protestors were 30 yards to 300 yards away and no threat to the Guard. But the bullets went flying anyway. So did blood from the students, including some just walking innocently from one class to another in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

I’ve read Bob’s excellent book about how the BJ handled the coverage, with Pat the #1 reason the BJ got the Pulitzer. It sits in a place of honor in my living room.

 

But a more chilling book to read about Kent State, stacked with Bob’s book in my living room,  is “Surviving: A Kent State Memoir,” by Paula Tucker, who was a State Desk reporter with me as her editor during the 1970s. Paula was pregnant and 30 yards from the Guard and a journalist observer, not a protester, and saw one student fall dead pretty damn close to where she stood.

 

Bob tells how the media handled it. Paula tells how survivors handled it. Read both books and you’ll have a better perspective on why killing America’s children had such a profound effect on ending the Vietnam War for America.

 

The two together give you an understanding that neither book can do alone. They should be sold as a package everywhere in America.