Letter From LBJ LYNDON JOHNSON TOLD THE NATION (Tom Paxton) I got a letter from LBJ 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 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 the 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 Every night the local gentry Step 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 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 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 Copyright Cherry Lane Music Publishing Co, Inc. recorded by Tom Paxton SOF
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