Op 4 mei 1970 opende de Ohio National Guard het vuur op ongewapende studenten die demonstreerden tegen de een paar dagen eerder door Nixon aangekondigde bombardementen op Cambodja. Vier studenten kwamen om het leven, negen raakten gewond. Eén van de gewonden zou voor de rest van zijn leven verlamd blijven. Volgens de Nationale Garde zou een sluipschutter hen onder vuur hebben genomen, maar daarvoor is nooit enig bewijs gevonden.
Enkele slachtoffers namen niet eens deel aan de demonstratie, ze stonden op een afstandje toe te kijken.
The shots were definitely coming my way, because when a bullet passes your head, it makes a crack. I hit the ground behind the curve, looking over. I saw a student hit. He stumbled and fell, to where he was running towards the car. Another student tried to pull him behind the car, bullets were coming through the windows of the car.
As this student fell behind the car, I saw another student go down, next to the curb, on the far side of the automobile, maybe 25 or 30 yards from where I was lying. It was maybe 25, 30, 35 seconds of sporadic firing.
The firing stopped. I lay there maybe 10 or 15 seconds. I got up, I saw four or five students lying around the lot. By this time, it was like mass hysteria. Students were crying, they were screaming for ambulances. I heard some girl screaming, “They didn’t have blank, they didn’t have blank,” no, they didn’t.
Toen Neil Young de foto’s van de slachtoffers zag in Life Magazine, schreef hij nog diezelfde dag Ohio. Ondanks het feit dat CSN&Y net een top-tien hit hadden met Teach Your Children werd de single onmiddellijk uitgebracht – tegen alle regels van de platenindustrie in.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
