Lyndon Johnson told the Nation

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Tom Paxton wrote this in 1965 and the Ghillies sang it from when they were formed in 1967. We were very anti war in those days and particularly the Vietnam war which this song is about. It's not a protest song but it describes the futility of it all. The USA were sending more and more soldiers to die in Vietnam and were losing the war.

I just got a letter from L.B.J
It said, "Son it's your lucky day"
It's time to put your khaki trousers on
Though it may seem very queer
We've got no jobs to give you here
And so we're sending you to Vietnam
Chorus:
Lyndon Johnson told the nation
There's no fear of escalation
I am trying everyone to please
Though it isn't really war
We're sending fifty thousand more
To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese

I jumped off the old troop ship
And sank in mud up to my hips
I cussed until the captain called me down
Never mind how hard it's raining
Think of all the ground we're gaining
Just don't take one step outside of town

Every night the local gentry
Slip out past the sleeping sentry
They go out to join the old V.C.
In their nightly little dramas
They put on their black pajamas
And come lobbing mortar shells at me

We go round in helicopters
Like a bunch of big grasshoppers
Searching for the Viet Cong in vain
They left a note that they had gone
They had to get down to Saigon
Their government positions to maintain

Here I sit in this rice paddy
Wondering about Big Daddy
And I know that Lyndon loves me so
Yet how sadly I remember
Way back yonder in November
When he said I'd never have to go
Chorus:
Lyndon Johnson told the nation
There's no fear of escalation
I am trying everyone to please
Though it isn't really war
We're sending fifty thousand more
To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese

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