Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation - Tom Paxton

[00:07.562]I got a letter from L.B.J
[00:09.574]It said, "This is your lucky day"
[00:11.481]It's time to put your khaki trousers on
[00:14.589]Though it may seem very queer
[00:17.724]We've got no jobs to give you here
[00:19.553]So we are sending you to Vietnam
[00:22.661]Lyndon Johnson told the nation
[00:25.561]Have no fear of escalation
[00:27.598]I am trying everyone to please
[00:31.438]Though it isn't really war
[00:33.554]We're sending fifty thousand more
[00:35.487]To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
[00:38.857]I jumped off the old troop ship
[00:41.469]And sank in mud up to my hips
[00:43.481]I cussed until the captain called me down
[00:46.511]Never mind how hard it's raining
[00:49.593]Think of all the ground we're gaining
[00:51.631]Just don't take one step outside of town
[00:54.766]Lyndon Johnson told the nation
[00:57.456]Have no fear of escalation
[00:59.389]I am trying everyone to please
[01:03.308]Though it isn't really war
[01:05.371]We're sending fifty thousand more
[01:07.357]To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
[01:13.469]Every night the local gentry
[01:15.507]Slip out past the sleeping sentry
[01:17.623]They go to join the old V C
[01:21.358]In their nightly little dramas
[01:23.657]They put on their black pajamas
[01:25.721]Then come lobbing mortar shells at me
[01:28.777]When Lyndon Johnson told the nation
[01:31.363]Have no fear of escalation
[01:33.296]I am trying everyone to please
[01:37.188]Though it isn't really war
[01:39.200]We're sending fifty thousand more
[01:41.237]To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
[01:47.246]We go round in helicopters
[01:49.571]Like a bunch of big grasshoppers
[01:51.556]Searching for the Viet Cong in vain
[01:55.082]They left a note that they had gone
[01:57.329]They had to get down to Saigon
[01:59.262]Their government positions to maintain
[02:03.415]And Lyndon Johnson told the nation
[02:05.427]Have no fear of escalation
[02:07.543]I am trying everyone to please
[02:11.278]Though it isn't really war
[02:13.264]We're sending fifty thousand more
[02:15.353]To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese
[02:21.414]Well, here I sit in this rice paddy
[02:23.477]Wondering about Big Daddy
[02:25.254]And I know that Lyndon loves me so
[02:29.277]Yet how sadly I remember
[02:31.314]Way back yonder in November
[02:33.352]When he said I'd never have to go
[02:37.166]And Lyndon Johnson told the nation
[02:39.282]Have no fear of escalation
[02:41.293]I am trying everyone to please
[02:45.368]Though it isn't really war
[02:47.327]We're sending fifty thousand more
[02:49.391]To help save Vietnam from the Vietnamese