Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation

Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation
Tom Paxton
Copyright © 1965, 1968, Deep Fork Music, Inc.

I got a letter from L.B. J.
that said, "This is your lucky day,
It's time to put your khaki trousers on.
We've got a job for you to do,
Dean Rusk has caught the Asian flu,
and we are sending you to Vietnam."

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
"Have no fear of escalation,
I am trying everyone to please.
Tho' it isn't really war,
we're sending fifty thousand more
to help save Vietnam from Vietnamese.

They sent me to some swampy hole,
We went out on a night patrol,
Just who was who was very hard to tell,
With Martha Raye and thirteen mayors,
Half of Congress, six ball players
and Ronald Reagan yelling, "Give 'em hell!"

It didn't take us very long
To run into the Viet Cong,
We had our loyal allies to count on,
And as the bullets danced around,
I thought I heard the thundering sound
Of loyal allies half way to Saigon.

The word came from the very top
That soon the shooting war would stop,
The pockets of resistance were so thin,
There just remained some troubled spots,
Like Vietnam, Detroit and Watts
And Bobby Kennedy and Ho Chi Minh.

So here I sit in this big rice paddy
Wondering about Big Daddy,
And I know that Lyndon loves me so.
I'm one of the chosen men,
But somehow I remember when
He told me that I'd never have to go.