Neil Young – Ohio lyrics

This song is about a tragic incident that occured at Kent State University in Ohio in May of 1970.Ohio National Guard troops opened fire on student protesters with live ammunition.Four of the students were shot dead and others were seriously injured including one who was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.An extensive investigation revealed that the troops were not under imminent danger of a life threatening attact when they opened fire.After several yearsof legal manuvering,several of the Guardsmen were put on trial for murder but they aii were acquited..None of them were officers.The commanding general of the Ohio National Guard was present when the troops opened fire, standing a short distance behind them.He made no attempt io intervene,nor did any of the other officers.Noneof them was ever charged with a crime.Nor was the Gov. of Ohio who was instrumental in having the Guard troops brought to the campus and being deployed to force the demonstraters to disperse.The student demonstration was in response to President Nixon authorizing American troops in Vietnam to cross the border into to Cambodia to attack North Vietnam Army Sanctuaries there.There were student demonstrations all over the U.S. due this issue.The intervention only lasted a short time before the U.S. forces withdrew back to Vietnam.It did nothing to shorten the war.Instead,it led to a widening of the war with an escalation of the war into Cambodia where non communist Cambodians fought a brutal civil war with communist Cambodians.That led to a secret,unauthorized bombing campaign of targets inside Cambodia.For further raeding about the events at Kent State,see the book titled When Truth Mattered by the managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal.That newspaper did the most comprehensive reporting on the events at Kent State among all of the media in the U.S. not just newspapers.