Tom Paxton - Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation

Vietnam War songs: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrummer/vietnam_war_song_project/
The song "Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation" (Elektra Records # EKL 298) was one of the key tracks of the anti-war movement, and an important representation of the "credibility gap"- that the US executive / president mislead the public about the growing US military commitment to the region.

On 4 August 1964, President Johnson gave a speech on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, in which he told the American public that the US must take action against "this new...aggression". He re-assured the public that "we still seek no wider war". Yet, in 1965 Johnson began to significantly escalate the Vietnam conflict - from 59,900 in June 1965 to 184,300 by December 1965. Thus US folk singer Tom Paxton addressed this contradiction in the chorus:

"Lyndon Johnson told the nation, have 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 Vietnamese"

It touched on those receiving the dreaded draft letter:

"I got a letter from L.B.J., it said this is 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
So we are sending you to Vietnam....
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"

It also noted the problem of dealing with guerrilla warfare, and support for Hồ Chí Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, from within US-backed South Vietnam. The "VC" and "Viet Cong" referred to the National Liberation Front (NFL), the political and military resistance to the US and South Vietnamese government from within South Vietnam. It mainly included guerrilla forces, but also regular units:

"Every night the local gentry sneak out past the sleeping sentry
They go to join the old VC...
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".

The lyrics and notations of this song appeared in the publication Broadside # 62, 15 September 1965.

Видео Tom Paxton - Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation канала Vietnam War Song Project