Tom Paxton - Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation Lyrics






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 Viet Nam

[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 Viet nam from Viet Namese."

I jumped off the old troop ship,
And sank in mud up to my hips.
I cussed until the captain called me down.
Never mind how hard it's raining,
Think of all the ground we're gaining,
Just don't take one step outside of town.

[Chorus]

Every night the local gentry,
Sneak out past the sleeping sentry.
They go to join the old VC.
In their nightly little dramas,
They put on their black pajamas,
And come lobbing mortar shells at me.

[Chorus]

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.

[Chorus]

Well here I sit in this rice paddy,
Wondering about Big Daddy,
And 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.

[Chorus]





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Tom Paxton Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation Comments
  1. k.... ....

    2020 does sounds similiar?

  2. C.... E....

    REGARDS FROM CORNERSTONE

  3. B.... D....

    God Damn that war...

  4. V.... ....

    Still relevant if you slightly change lyrics

  5. H.... V....

    Hahahahaha

  6. l.... t....

    Thank you uncle Jim. Uncle Roy. Uncle James. Uncle John. All my family for all of the men that faught that fight.
    Thanks to you too uncle Sam

  7. e.... u....

    I like to think we would have never become involved in Vietnam if Nixon had won in 1960.

  8. L.... M....

    I recall hearing a live version where every chorus they kept increasing the number until it got to a hundred thousand at the end

  9. T.... L....

    LBJ=worst president ever

  10. T.... C....

    Hey, Hey, LBJ... Ah! The Memories! RESIST!!

  11. P.... D....

    Think of all the ground we're gaining
    Just don't take one step outside of town


    Sounds a bit like Kabul, eh?

  12. H.... S....

    American Experience produced an incredible 13 part series, "Vietnam, A Television History" that should be required viewing.

    H.... S....

    Absolutely. There have been several other documentaries on the subject since, but A Television History remains one of the most authoritative.

  13. S.... S....

    Who disliked it ... they are fool... listen to the lyrics

  14. 1.... ....

    Tom Paxton - one of he very best of all of his time and genre.

  15. P.... D....

    We were gonna catch Lyndon and pull his pants down.

    P.... D....

    Lyin' Don

  16. S.... P....

    Lyrics :

    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
    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 the Vietnamese
    I jumped off the old troop ship
    And sank in mud up to my hips
    I cussed until the captain called me down
    Never mind how hard it's raining
    Think of all the ground we're gaining
    Just don't take one step outside of town
    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 the Vietnamese
    Every night the local gentry
    Slip out past the sleeping sentry
    They go to join the old V see
    In their nightly little dramas
    They put on their black pajamas
    And come lobbing mortar shells at me
    When 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 the Vietnamese
    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
    And 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 the Vietnamese
    Well, here I sit in this rice paddy
    Wondering about Big Daddy
    And 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
    And 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 the Vietnamese

    S.... P....

    yes perfect sarcastitic reply from LJB !! cos he was an idiot as he saidnot a warvanny more yeah asshole if u put a gaun to someones head its a war !!! asshole!!!

  17. C.... ....

    This song is extremely catchy, and the fact that it's a vital piece of history ups its cool factor.

  18. J.... g....

    Hi just back from a tour of Vietnam. The North won the war but Vietnam is definitely no longer communist despite claims to the contrary. Like China capitalism is victorious. There are people who are (by western standards) fabulously rich and others who are very very poor. Many western companies, such as Canon, have large factories there. In fact the N.Vietnam Canon factory is the largest Canon factory in the world.

    J.... g....

    gotta flush out the jew trader/traitor.. who exactly owns those companies and/or has most shares in them.. Cui Bono you know?
    btw wkipedia says china is governed by the communist party and they have censorship offices at ISP.

  19. Z.... ....

    Fuck you, Lyndon Johnson had no choice, the military industrial complex controls presidents. It's domestic policy we can best judge them upon, and LBJ rose more people out of poverty than any president other than FDR.

  20. D.... M....

    "War is when the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other." - Niko Bellic

    D.... M....

    @Eerimen Bzej What has been wrongly gained is wrongly lost. Nope, I'll make money no matter what.

    D.... M....

    @Zeke Housley whatever you say Quark

    D.... M....

    ​@Eerimen Bzej I was not aware that I was a type of elementary particle and is a fundamental constituent of matter.

    D.... M....

    @Zeke Housley the fool outwits himself, for he hath no understanding

  21. K.... M....

    Politics kills more men than bullets.

    K.... M....

    Bullets kill men for Politics

    K.... M....

    True enough , and some kind of policy is always behind the gunfire. It really is a vicious existential cycle.

    K.... M....

    "Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die." - Herbert Hoover

    K.... M....

    Darren Ma

    Fine words, from the man who refused to alleviate the Great Depression.

    K.... M....

    I'm still here, where are you? ;)

  22. Y.... m....

    thank you Democracy Now for playing this while covering the death and playing a speech of Tom Hayden, RIP!

    Y.... m....

    I also heard this yesterday on DemocracyNow!

    Y.... m....

    @AliBesh yeah I love the music on Democracy Now on top of the brilliant journalism they are committed to, but yes I even have my own democracy now playlist with much of the music they play hehe! :)

    Y.... m....

    I'm glad I'm not alone! :-)

    Y.... m....

    @AliBesh likewise! they should do that Democracy Now, sell cds every month of their playlist, and all the money goes into them continuing to be a robust independent media outlet :)

  23. D.... B....

    Unfortunately, the war tainted LBJ's legacy of pushing through Civil Rights legistlation and the policies of his great society.

    D.... B....

    so true, if not for the war, LBJ would have been able to focus on internal legislation.

    D.... B....

    The Civil Right legislation was started by JFK and it gained support from MLK, LBJ has no legacy other than getting hundreds of thousands murdered

    D.... B....

    War, civil rights legislation, and the Great Society are all the same thing, big government ruling over people's' lives. Johnson's domestic policies created a dependent class who blame all their troubles on someone else. rights that take away other rights negate the whole principle of natural rights.

    D.... B....

    deservedly so, he escalated the war from 16,000 to 549,000 US troops even though it became clear that victory was unattainable

    D.... B....

    Ku Ku Klock l

  24. P.... B....

    today it's not LBJ, it's not the VC and it's not Vietnam but though this song will stay current as long as big brother America is existing.

    P.... B....

    as long as any of the big superpowers exist. Russia and China are also dangerous, like the US. just watch the next twenty years

  25. J.... S....

    We are the Government. At least, we're supposed to be. We weren't supposed to ever let anyone buy or steal the government from us but apparently, we've been wasting time, watching sports and dancing with the stars.

    J.... S....

    you ppl haven't been 'the government' for well over 150 years... just saying.

  26. j.... ....

    61,000 dead young men, for nothing ..... and I still cry, over my sweet friend, who came back in a box, after only one yr, and he was just 20 :'(

    j.... ....

    It WAS Tricky Dick who made the pronouncement that they would send troops, even without allies, at the same time that Joe McCarthy was ratcheting up his Cold War interrogations process.And while Nixon isn't the subject of this song, that doesn't mean that he didn't support the war, which is what I THINK you're trying to say. It actually took an unelected Republican President to buck the tradition and call an end to the war, in contradiction to Mr Nixon's continuation of the war. I guess Gerald, since he never asked for the job, figured that he could use his time as a conscripted President to do what he thought was right, presumably. Ultimately, this and the Watergate pardons, amongst other things, caused him to lose enough Republican support that the election was won by Jimmy carter, a political outsider who promised to clean out the White House, started over 30 points behind and only won the vote because of the electoral college.
    History repeats, but it doesn't always wear the same clothes.

    j.... ....

    Sorry for your loss hope you are doing better

    j.... ....

    Thank you for your services and sorry about your friend.

  27. S.... ....

    Nice job on hitting 100k views!

  28. N.... R....

    Wow really hit you looking at the pictures

  29. T.... T....

    war for what?

    T.... T....

    trying to stop the spread of communism, but it was poorly planed, without proper objectives

    T.... T....

    For what ? That's a good question. Senseless killing and loss of our young men..... for what ????

    T.... T....

    ahah, spreding of communism... It was a France colony, all Region fight with colonism and poority, So, Communism was perfect for them. So, USA had a dream to be Empire, but have no expirience. It was very ugly "game". Nazicm-colonism in other colors,

    T.... T....

    Thiên Tính Lâm Huỳnh the military industrial complex!

  30. F.... ....

    "We see the light at the end of the tunnel."

  31. p.... R....

    50, 000 dead boys , for nothing!

    p.... R....

    My, my, my! How polite! How respectful! Does your mommy know you talk like that?

    p.... R....

    McGannahan
    As if a republican would have done better idiot.

    p.... R....

    "for nothing"

    my tungsten lightbulbs beg to differ!
    as does my vietnamese clothing, very comfy!

    p.... R....

    And many more Vietnamese killed as well

    p.... R....

    @Mark Law it wouldn't have been a liberal democracy anyway. The south was also ruled by a dictator. No point in ever going there.

  32. p.... ....

    "Stay in the boat!"

  33. j.... ....

    Hey tom! how r the kids! james halloran (T>C>)

  34. T.... T....

    I need mp3, please :D

    T.... T....

    +Thiên Tính Lâm Huỳnh youtube to mp3

    T.... T....

    Me too dude!

  35. W.... S....

    Hey, we did a lot for the Vietnamese. We introduced ham and lima beans into their cuisine and all those bomb craters became swimming holes during the monsoon rainy season. Not to mention that we exposed them to Afro American culture, Motown, and left tons of valuable brass scrap metal lying around for them to recycle. Where is the beef?

    W.... S....

    W Smith how about the hundreds of thousands dead

    W.... S....

    We can't eat those, that's cannibalism!

    W.... S....

    The Napom caused birth defects generations after the war

    W.... S....

    christopher snedeker nope, you're thinking of agent orange.

  36. s.... k....

    1:41 do people fucking know the story of that photo well i will tell you that photo is called execution in saigon and the man that is about to be killed is a rapist thief and murderer that killed people in saigon in war times and hes about to be shot and killed for his crimes if you dont believe me google the story of the photo execution in saigon

    s.... k....

    @wulatelong kr Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial

    s.... k....

    @sabertooth kr Assuming that is correct, it still captures the brutality of the war very well. I don't see why that should change anything.

    s.... k....

    +sabertooth kr Bullshit. He was a P.O.W. murdered by Col. Loan, like so many others. We supported a corrupt, brutal regime and we got our fucking asses handed to us, and if you can't deal with it, get some therapy.

    s.... k....

    +Memelord I'm not sure you and I are talking about the same thing when we say "our side".

  37. p.... R....

    A classic.  And history, as per USA policy, does repeat itself.  Doesn't any government want peace?  Is war just the economic advantage for the rulers?  

    p.... R....

    essentially; yes.

    p.... R....

    Wars are fought by the poor and disadvantaged by overwhelming percentages. Not by Senators sons, not by the Trumps of our country, or the Clintons. Don't we learn anything from history? Yes, we were attacked on 9/11 but we have lost many times the number lost on that date and there is NO end in sight. Many hundreds of thousands have died since date whether they were our sworn enemies or civilians caught in the middle. WTF?

    p.... R....

    It is just parallel to society on the streets of any town in the world. Someone is always trying to rob, cheat, steal and kill. Countries are no different.

  38. A.... F....

    Everyone complains about Vietnam, but Tom totally explains it in layman's terms. LBJ wasn't sending troops into war, we were just there "To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese" - lol. Great song.

    A.... F....

    The updated version he wrote "George W. Told the Nation" is just as apt.

    A.... F....

    +A Florida Son I'm not sure "lol" is appropriate in this context. But it was a terrible bloody civil war fought by proxies for the US and China.

    A.... F....

    @Mark Law You're  right. It could be interpreted as if I did misuse "lol". However, I actually meant it more as a sarcastic laugh at LBJ for the way Tom says LBJ said "it wasn't war, it was saving Vietnam from the Vietnamese". That's just a great line about LBJ, due to the fact that it was an obvious war.

    A.... F....

    @A Florida Son yeah lbj currupt asshole

  39. R.... D....

    Brilliant. See: http://robindunnmusic.wordpress.com/tom-paxton/

  40. M.... M....

    Awesome melody with the acoustic guitar to accompany it.  Would love to find CDs with 60s recordings of his but most available are of later vintage.

  41. S.... B....

    It never ends. Now Obama. We invaded Laos and Cambodia by using their air spaces illegally then. Who will stop the US? Where are the "hell no, we won't go" voices from our tropps. Time to bring back the draft. That will get people angry.

  42. R.... H....

    Wonderful ! 

    :D

  43. B.... P....

    "In their nightly little dramas
    They put on their black pajamas
    And come lobbing mortar shells at me."

    That's exactly how a guerrilla army fights - by tying down and exhausting the occupation.

    B.... P....

    remember the bamboo panji trap, fox holes that only fit their body size, attacks at night, attack with explosive tied to their bodies, using cute women as informers, farmer by day vietcong by night.

  44. B.... P....

    "In their nightly little dramas
    They put on their black pajamas
    And come lobbing mortar shells at me."

    That's exactly how a guerrilla army fights - by tying down and exhausting the occupation.

  45. T.... H....

    Jeff, I just sent a note to folks around the globe saying the same thing.  Without the singer-song writers, how do we get the message out ?  We can't rely on the print media aka the Fourth Estate, so what now ?  I agree, who will write the song about Mr. Obama ?  Everyone - or most everyone - relies on sound bites whether over TV or smart phones.  Where are the investigative reporters?  The 4th Estate was given the responsibility of keeping government in check - what happened?
    I am very much concerned about this situation --- any suggestions?

  46. M.... P....

    listening to this song because i have to do a project on it...it's actually not that bad...i somewhat like the song that i randomly selected out of a bowl!

    M.... P....

    Heeeyyy I had to do the same thing also I agree completely

    M.... P....

    Me too!

  47. S.... K....

    Replace Vietnam with Syria and this song is becoming eerily similar

    S.... K....

    Steve Kay blair and bush told their nations

    S.... K....

    and now make it Iran

  48. R.... Z....

    Ah, how glad I am that my friend showed me this. Just another reason why LBJ was, in my opinion, one of the worst presidents the United States has ever had.

  49. G.... ....

    Top 5 Vietnam songs for sure.

  50. b.... l....

    you've got tab please ?

  51. n.... ....

    Yeah, Johnson was definitely a Democrat, in fact, both Andrew and Lyndon Johnson were. However, in my opinion, regardless of partisan politics, LBJ was a good president. He isn't remembered as well as he should have and Vietnam was an unfortunate thing that started with Eisenhower and is pitted mainly on him. Granted, he is responsible for the incremental escalation, but his pursuits against a greater society both economically and racially should be known.

  52. D.... ....

    It's a damn shame this war wrecked LBJ's presidency. Great song, though.

  53. R.... A....

    To smartalek180
    ..... "-- how the Publicans, the mass media, & their corporate masters are still telling the same lies now that they did then, nearly a half-century on"......

    LBJ was a Democrat! Side with one bunch of liars or another but which ever side you choose, you'll be choosing the wrong one.

  54. V.... O....

    Voices in the wilderness. How many have you heard? Tom, Pete, Dave, Bob, Buffy, Johnny, Joanie, Barry, Bruce, Tracy & Eddie. Then there's Liam, Tommy, Christie and a host of others. Have a bit of fun putting surnames to some of the greats. YouTube will give anyone a history lesson, if you are prepared to take the time.

  55. s.... ....

    It would be hilarious -- if it weren't so tragic -- how the Publicans, the mass media, & their corporate masters are still telling the same lies now that they did then, nearly a half-century on.
    I can't remember where, but I saw a newsclip from the VietNam war in which a starry-eyed young American, then serving in VietNam, said, "We have to fight them over here, so we don't wind up fighting them at home."
    I wish to God I were kidding.
    And I hope and pray that kid got home on his feet.

  56. G.... ....

    love this song....