Many of us at the time of Kent State wondered just how the White House saw the shootings. Given the Nixon/Agnew position that anti-war protesters were "bums," the common supposition then was that they would shed few tears for injured or killed students.
Recently, while looking for documents on the Nixon administration's Vietnam decision-making, I stumbled upon a record of a phone conversation that took place between Nixon and Henry Kissinger at 4: 45 p.m. on the afternoon of May 4th. Declassified and published in 2006, the transcript is quoted as part of an "Editorial Note" that was published in Volume VI of the Foreign Relations of the United States 1969-72 series. It is to the credit of the State Dept. historians who compiled this volume that they not only appreciated the importance of the events in May, 1970 for understanding Nixon administration Vietnam policy, but chose to devote space within their own volume to the topic, even though, as they note, the events at Kent and Jackson State Universities received little attention in the official foreign policy records.
Document 277 of Volume VI contains a partial transcript of the phone call between Nixon and Kissinger. The key paragraph is here:
[T]he President told Kissinger: “At Kent State there were 4 or 5 killed today. But that place has been bad for quite some time—it has been rather violent.” Kissinger suggested that the Nixon administration would be blamed for the killings and he noted that thirty-three university presidents were appealing to the President to leave Vietnam. The President asked about the student strike, observing: “If it's peaceful it doesn't bother me.” Still, Nixon worried if the students were “out of classes they'll be able to raise hell.” Kissinger thought they would hold teach-ins and possibly march on Washington. Nixon hoped “we can get some people of our own to speak out.” Kissinger stated that “The university presidents are a disgrace,” to which Nixon replied: “They still get an inordinate amount of publicity, like the students. We have to stand hard as a rock. Everybody's been through this—de Gaulle, Marcos…If countries begin to be run by children, God help us.” Kissinger suggested that “of course, student disorders hurt us politically.” The President responded: “They don't if it doesn't appear we caused them.” (Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Kissinger Papers, Box 363, Telephone Conversations, Chronological File)
Although Nixon does seem to take former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos as one of his role models, at least he has a proper presidential attitude about peaceful protest. It was Kissinger, not Nixon, who termed university presidents calling for withdrawal from Vietnam "a disgrace." Whether he was being strategic -- showing Nixon that although he came from Harvard, he was just as hostile to campus attitudes on the war as the most ardent Nixon administration hawk -- is something that only Kissinger himself can answer.
The Editorial Note alludes to additional declassified but unpublished material on administration conversations about the shootings at the Library of Congress and the National Archives, and also contains links to a few other related documents published elsewhere in the FRUS series. Perhaps a Kossack with a flat bed scanner and within driving distance of these sites could spend a few hours unearthing the unpublished documents. This Editorial Note tells you where to start looking.