Music for the study of the Vietnam War
collected by John J. Fitzgerald
Longmeadow High School
Longmeadow, MA 01106
(not to be sold)

"The Universal Soldier"

He's 5 foot 2 and he's 6 feet 4.
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of 31 and he's only 17.
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.

He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain;
A Buddhist, and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill
and he knows he always will kill.
You for me my friend
and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada;
he's fighting for France.
He's fighting for the USA.
And he's fighting for the Russians
and he's fighting for Japan.
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
he's fighting for the Reds.
He says its for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
who's to live and who's to die
and he never sees the writing on the wall.

But, without him, how would Hitler have condemned them at Dachau?
Without him , Caesar would have stood alone.
He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war.
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier, and he really is to blame.
His orders come from far away no more.
They come from him and you and me, and brothers can't you see?
This is not the way we put an end to war.

Written and recorded by
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Woodmere Music/BMI
Vanguard Records
The Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie © 1982, 1987