>>Nixon tested that hypothesis at Kent State and the guardsmen he sent there did, in fact, fire on the student protesters.
There were protests and demonstrations for a brief while after that but for all intents and purposes the protests of the 1960's ended at Kent State.
These days the troops are more likely to be from similar socioeconomic backgrounds to those they'll be expected to suppress. No telling how that will pan out but elsewhere it's ended in tears if troops are expected to move against their own to protect those they resent.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
