Rick Winston: Kent State shootings 52 years ago led to turmoil in Vermont

This commentary is by Rick Winston, who was the co-owner of the Savoy Theater in Montpelier from its inception in 1980 until 2009. He is now a film history instructor at the Montpelier Senior Activity Center, and a speaker on film history for the Vermont Humanities Council. He is the author of the recently published “Red Scare in the Green Mountains: Vermont in the McCarthy Era 1946-1960.”

This May 4 will mark a somber anniversary. It will be 52 years since National Guard troops fired on unarmed antiwar protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four and wounding nine others.

Three days earlier, on May 1, 1970, President Richard Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia, a major escalation of the conflict in Southeast Asia. There were many protests nationwide, but the violence at Kent State shook the country. It immediately became one of the crucial events of a time that journalist Myra MacPherson called “the most divisive period in America since the Civil War.”

Intense passions regarding the Vietnam War often found family members on opposing sides. In Vermont, the family that was the Republican Party experienced a similar, tumultuous disagreement.

In an episode largely forgotten today, Republican Lt. Gov. Thomas Hayes, in the absence of Republican Gov. Deane Davis, ordered the United States flag flown at half-staff in tribute to the Kent State victims.

Hayes had become acting governor on Wednesday, May 6, when Gov. Davis left to attend a Republican Governors Conference in New Mexico. The relationship between the two was already testy due to Hayes’ public disagreement with Davis’ legislative agenda. Hayes had claimed that the “budget austerity” championed by Davis would lead to harmful cuts in social services.

The relationship was further strained by Hayes’ vocal opposition to the war in Southeast Asia, which Davis vehemently supported. In November 1969, Hayes announced his intention to participate in the “March Against Death” demonstration in Washington, D.C., the second nationwide moratorium protest against the war. Hayes had already made it clear that he would not be seeking another term as lieutenant governor. By the time of the Kent State shootings, he had declared his intention to challenge Davis in that year’s gubernatorial primary.

‘Deane knew my family’

This was also an especially difficult time for 24-year-old Charles “Chuck” Butler, who at the time of Kent State was director of the Commission on Student Affairs in the governor’s office. Butler had met Davis as a young boy, when he spent most summers in Barre with his grandparents.

“Deane knew my family, and knew me as a kid,” says Butler, looking back on these events. “I had love and respect for Deane, and I know he loved Vermont and its people.”

Fresh out of college at Arizona State University, Butler had jumped at the offer to be the driver of the Davis campaign bus in the summer of 1968. He grew close to Davis and the candidate’s inner circle, while getting to know nooks and crannies of Vermont. When Davis won the election, Butler, newly married, happily accepted a job in the administration: assistant to the governor.

Butler’s own opposition to the Vietnam War had been growing. Once Davis took office, Butler gradually realized he had much more in common philosophically with Lt. Gov. Hayes than he did with his family friend, Gov. Davis.

Butler’s relationship with the governor became tense after he and Hayes had attended the November 1969 march in Washington. After complaints from others in the administration, notably Secretary of Civil and Military Affairs Frederick Reed, Butler lost his position in the governor’s office; he was “kicked sideways,” as he put it, to head the Commission on Student Affairs.

Vermont’s lieutenant governor made waves after the Kent State shootings. Clip from Times Argus front page.

Davis left for New Mexico on Wednesday, May 6. The following morning, Butler was with a dispirited Hayes when the lieutenant governor said, “I have to do something.”

Hayes called in the press to announce a day of mourning for the four Kent State victims. He also announced plans for a memorial service on the Statehouse steps for that Saturday and urged flags to be flown at half-staff for the remainder of the week.

“I’ve traveled in different parts of the state today and found that our young people have been hurt and stirred by the Kent State happenings as they have never been before,” Hayes said in his announcement. “Many older people share this feeling as well, and I think we must all act with judgment, restraint and respect for one another.”

A service in Montpelier

Hayes hoped that every legislator would travel to Montpelier for the memorial service, and also asked every clergyman who could not come to the Montpelier event to hold a service during that time.

He had immediate support from Republican House Speaker John Burgess and the Republican president pro tem of the Senate, Edward Janeway. “Everybody is greatly shocked by this incident, “ said Janeway, “and I feel it goes to the root of everything that is troubling this nation.”

Gov. Davis, who had been scheduled to fly from New Mexico to a vacation in Switzerland, abruptly changed his plans upon hearing of Hayes’ proclamation. The governors conference had already been canceled, since only five other Republican governors had come to the conference. The rest stayed home due to antiwar turmoil in their home states.

“Because of the seriousness of the situation in Vermont,” the governor said, “I believe it is imperative to return to Montpelier as soon as possible.”

According to the Rutland Herald, Davis was fielding phone calls from Frederick Reed, who was “aghast at the proclamations and plans of Acting Governor Hayes” and others in his administration opposed to the flag-lowering. Other calls informed the governor that “even such normally placid campuses such as Vermont College were boiling with emotion and indignation.”

While Davis was en route back to Vermont, Hayes made an early morning trip to witness the turbulence on the campus of Middlebury College. A vacant wood-frame building had been set ablaze by an arsonist (no one ever claimed responsibility), and a student strike had been called.

Hayes then returned to Montpelier, where 300 Vermont College students, accompanied by faculty and staff, marched on the Statehouse. They cheered Hayes as he came out to address them. He urged the students to continue to work for peace, while rejecting violence.

Davis back in town

Friday, May 7, Hayes’ final day as acting governor, was marked by two decisions. Attorney General James Jeffords had ruled that the governor (or acting governor) can order state flags at half-staff, but not the American flag. Hayes also announced on Friday that the Statehouse memorial service would go ahead as planned, but without state sponsorship.

According to The Times Argus, Hayes made that decision “reputedly after getting a consensus from Middlebury College students, and other student sources, who feared that violence might result from the demonstration.”

Davis returned to Vermont late Friday. At his airport press conference in Burlington, Davis said that “he wouldn’t mind if (the demonstration) took place, as long as it’s peaceful.” When asked about Hayes’ action that set off the week’s events, Davis responded, “I assume he acted using his best judgment.” He added, “I would not have done what he did.”

The Saturday rally unfolded without a hint of violence. The headline of the Times Argus read, “Two generations speak in protest at Statehouse.” Five hundred people showed up to hear student speakers and others, such as former congressman William Meyer, Goddard College President Gerald Witherspoon, and Goddard faculty member Marc Estrin.

Earlier that week, Estrin had been arrested for leading a sit-in on Route 2 in Plainfield, blocking traffic in order to hand out antiwar leaflets to motorists.

Estrin tartly noted Thomas Hayes’ absence from the rally, saying, “Our friend called on us to come and then not to come — he hath given and he hath taken away.”

According to the accompanying article, “the students had proven decisively that not only had Lt. Gov. Hayes been mistaken by canceling the program under rumors of impending violence, but that neither the National Guard nor state police were required in Vermont to protect the rights of Americans gathered in peaceful assembly to protest the actions of government.”

With Gov. Davis’ return and a peaceful Statehouse rally, the tension in the administration temporarily abated. For Chuck Butler, though, the weeks after the day of mourning were a time of great uncertainty.

Butler had addressed Vermont College protesters on May 9, making it plain, as the Argus said, “that he was disillusioned with the Republican Party.” “This is a time for thinking and questioning,” he said at the rally.

Taking aim at Russell Merriam, chairman of the state Republican Party and one of the governor’s trusted advisers, Butler said, “I suggest you question two of your trustees, Governor Davis and Russell Merriam. … They are two of the biggest war hawks in Vermont.”

‘He was completely right!’

Some headlines from the first two weeks of May tell the ensuing story: “”Is Butler Republican? Davis Mum”; “Young Republicans Oust Butler”; “Situation ‘Fluid’ for Davis Aide Butler.”

On May 13, the governor let Butler know that the young aide was “neither philosophically nor temperamentally able to represent the administration.” Butler, looking back after 52 years, says with a chuckle, “He was completely right!”

Reaction to the Kent State shootings varied widely. Clip from Times Argus front page

Butler, now living in Helena, Montana, went on to join the staff of the Times Argus and later became the Montpelier bureau chief for United Press International. He was subsequently a senior executive with Vermont Blue Cross and Blue Shield for many years. He still retains a warm feeling for Deane Davis, and points to Davis’ strong environmental legacy as evidence of the governor’s deep love of the state.

Thomas Hayes eventually changed his party affiliation to Democrat and was subsequently appointed to the Vermont Judiciary by Gov. Madeleine Kunin. He was described in his 1987 New York Times obituary as “a champion of the Vermont State Constitution.” According to Butler, Hayes always remained proud of his actions in that memorable first week of May of 1970.

As this anniversary is marked, Butler notes that violence and divisiveness still plague our world. Thomas Hayes put the Kent State killings in this perspective: “Whenever young people are struck down, you can’t escape wondering what they would have been if they had lived. … Like the young men who died in Vietnam, they will never embrace a spouse, and never hold a child in their hands.”