WHILE WINNING JOHNSON'S WAR"
[A good gauge of the attitude of the people toward a war is the songs they sing about it. Yankee-Doodle, for instance, still lingers in the popular mind as an expression of the feeling of the American colonies in their struggle for national liberation.
{In the war in Vietnam, very few songs have been heard in praise of Johnson and the Pentagon. The professional song writers seem to find the subject unattractive. Perhaps because "love" rhymes with “dove.” On the other hand, the folk singers have voiced the feeling of opposition in pungent verses.
[The following song appears to have risen spontaneously among the ranks of the American conscripts. Now being sung in Vietnam, it is reported to have been composed by an unnamed soldier in the Fourth Division to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. ]
* ok *
1.
Should all the troopers who have died
while winning Johnson's war, Should all the troops who "won" before
be followed up by more?
Chorus: (All join.)
We're "winning now," we're told each year,
we're winning Lyndon's war, For Ky and Thieu and rich landlords
and for their Saigon whores.
2.
We saved the rich landlords before
in nineteen-sixty-three. But after Diem we had to save them
once again for Ky.
Chorus: (All join.)
3. The troopers fall, a few a day,
it really isn't much. We like to die for freedom's sake
and Ky and whores and such.
Chorus: (All join.)
4. They're living good in old Saigon,
we must protect them well. If that means U.S. troopers die,
well, brother, War is Hell.
Chorus: (All join.)
5.
It's hard to know, why LBJ
gives rich landlords and Ky
More U.S. dollars while we die,
but that's democracy.
Chorus: (All join.)
6.
Adolph Hitler is the hero
of dear Marshall Ky.
Our fathers thought that Hitler stunk
but Lyndon don't agree.
Chorus: (All join.)
7.
Ky had elections, casting votes,
to see what people thought,
And sure enough, Ky's ballot box
showed Ky and Thieu were bought.
Chorus: (All join.)
8.
The ballot boxes were secure,
the whole election fair.
The winners all were picked, you know,
by Nguyen Cao Ky with care.
Chorus: (All join.)
9.
And so we have democracy
for Ky in old Saigon;
And Bunker says that this will bring
domestic peace and caln.
Chorus: (All join.)
10.
But still our troopers seem to die
a score or two each day,
Because the folks of Vietnam
don't count up votes Ky's way.
Chorus: (All join.)
1l.
We're saving them from what they think
the vote should really be.
And thus we save them from themselves,
and for democracy.
Chorus: (All join.)
le.
Ky freedom means they're free to do
what Marshall Ky ordains.
Dissenters take the choice of getting
slaughtered for their pains.
Chorus: (All join.)
13.
Our troops die for democracy,
to make Vietnam free, To free it from Vietnamese
who disagree with Ky.
Chorus: (All join.)
14.
The body count of those we've freed
keeps climbing by the score. In sixty years we'd ought to save
some thirty million more.
Chorus: (All join.)
15.
And when we've finished up the job,
we'll give Vietnam to Ky”
Without a living soul to share
in his democracy.
(Return to repeat first verse.
Then final chorus as follows: )
We're here because we're here because
we're here because we're here,
We're here because we're here because
we're here because we're here.
(Ad infinitum, fading into dis-
tant echo, and out.
ZENGAKUREN