Pres. NIXON: You know, you see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world and here they are, burning up the books, I mean, storming around about this issue, I mean, you name it. Get rid of the war, there'll be another one.

NARRATOR: Nixon's remarks further infuriated students already protesting over Cambodia. After three tense days of demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio, nervous National Guardsmen opened fire. Four students were killed. "My child was not a bum," said the father of one dead girl. American campuses exploded. Hundreds of colleges and universities closed down. Governors in 16 states called out the police and National Guard. Nixon's supporters took to the streets as well. At New York's City Hall, construction workers struggled to raise the flag which the mayor had lowered to honor the dead at Kent State. Nixon's move into Cambodia and his dividing of Americans into bums and heroes had set off a national firestorm.

Angry protesters returned to Washington. As tensions rose, the Secret Service ringed the White House with a barricade of buses.

CHARLES COLSON, Special Counsel to the President : It was like living in a bunker in the White House. I mean, we'd look out in the streets and see thousands of people protesting. You literally were afraid for your life. There were times when I can remember saying, "I can't believe this is the United States of America, a free country," and here we are in the White House with barricades up and buses around the White House and tear gas going off and thousands, hundreds of thousands of protesters out in the streets and troops sitting here.

NARRATOR: An embattled Nixon faced the press, as anti-war demonstrators continued to flock to Washington.

HERB KAPLOW, Reporter: [White House press conference] What do you think the students are trying to say in these demonstrations?

Pres. NIXON: They're trying to say that they want peace. They're trying to say that they want to stop the killing. They're trying to say that they want to end the draft. They're trying to say that we ought to get out of Vietnam. I agree with everything that they're trying to accomplish. I believe, however, that the decisions that I have made will serve that purpose.

NARRATOR: That night, protesters circled the White House with chants and candles. Inside, a sleepless Nixon made more than 40 phone calls to friends and supporters around the country. Near dawn, he called for a car and asked to be driven to the Lincoln Memorial, where protesters had gathered. White House aide Egil Krogh followed him.

EGIL KROGH Jr., White House Aide: It was ... I guess it was almost a surreal atmosphere. It was almost like dreamlike, "Is this really happening?" Walking up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial and there was the president, sort of standing in the middle of a group of young people who were wearing combat fatigues with peace symbols and bandannas and all of the clothing of the Sixties and Seventies and trying very hard to communicate to them.

LAUREE MOSS, Student Protester: I think I said, "Well, what are you going to do about the Kent State killings? What are you going to do about the war?" He said, "I'm really not here to talk about that right now.

We're trying to handle things." So it was a one-way, you know, conversation or a one-way street. Yeah, because he was there, trying to be very conversational and casual and we were there, outraged and angry and scared.

Mr. KROGH: One student basically told him, he said, "I hope that you realize that we are willing to die for what we believe in." And I think, as I recall, the president's response was, "Well, I understand that, but we're trying to build a world where people will not have to die for what they believe in."

NARRATOR: When he appeared as the guest of honor at a Billy Graham crusade in Tennessee, Nixon had been in office 16 months. A majority of Americans still backed his Vietnam policy, but the furor over Cambodia had deepened the divisions Nixon had promised to mend. Even here, surrounded by thousands who supported him, the president could not escape the ceaseless storm of protest.

Pres. NIXON: [Billy Graham crusade] And if we're going to bring people together, as we must bring them together, if we're going to have peace in the world, if our young people are going to have a fulfillment beyond simply those material things, they must turn to those great spiritual sources that have made America the great country that it is. I'm proud to be here and I'm very proud to have your warm reception. Thank you very much.

NARRATOR: Throughout the next year, Nixon continued to try to rally his supporters, while denouncing his opponents, calling some among the protesters "thugs and hoodlums," blaming his critics in Congress and the press for failing to support the war. All U.S. troops left Cambodia by the end of June, as Nixon had promised. He insisted that the military action which had caused such turmoil had eased the pressure on the troops in Vietnam. Withdrawals continued on schedule, but more American lives had been lost. There was no break-through in the peace talks. And in the White House, an increasingly frustrated and suspicious Nixon urged intensified surveillance of the anti-war movement. He grew distrustful even of his closest advisers and installed hidden microphones in his own office, in part so that his aides could not later claim to have disagreed with his decisions. But the taping system would eventually trap the president himself.