Vietnam War song: [ Ссылка ]
The song "The Viet Nam Blues" (Dot Records # 16766), written by Kris Kristofferson, took a patriotic line. On 28 August 1965 Billboard reported that "Capt. Kris Kristofferson, 23, of Texas, a Rhodes scholar, got out of the army recently, met songwriter Marijohn Wilkin, who persuaded him to come to Nashville and try his hand as a songwriter. He agreed, signed with Buckhorn Music....Kristofferson's first to be recorded is "The Viet Nam Blues", a talking single done by Jack Sanders on Dot Records. It is in the patriotic vein, supports the US position in Viet Nam". The narrator, a soldier on leave in Washington D.C., came across a "strange looking bunch" of protesters, gathering signatures to send a "telegram of sympathy...to Ho Chi Minh". This caused the veteran to feel "down right sick", as they seemed more concerned with the suffering of the Vietnamese than the American soldiers and their families.

In the final section, the soldier came across a sign which said "we won't fight". So the soldier explained that they were fighting so that those back in the US could enjoy their freedoms, and not "wake up dead". This made the soldier look "crazy, just another warmonger". In the final line, the soldier headed to a bar, as the listener discovered that he was "on orders to Vietnam" with only "an hour" before his flight left.

I was out on the leave at the time...in that crazy place called Washington DC
I saw a crowd of people on the White House lawn, all carrying signs about Vietnam...
There's a strange looking bunch, but then I never did understand civilians
Well a fellow came to me with a list in his hand, said we're gathering names to send
A telegram of sympathy...I says I reckon this is going to kids and wives of my friends over there...
He said ah ah buddy this is going to Ho-Chi-Min...people's leader, North Vietnam
Well I wasn't right sure I was hearing ity right, but I thought I'd better move before I got in a fight...
Then I thought about another telegram...telling my buddy's wife that her husband was dead
It wasn't too long till I was feeling downright sick...
Another held a sign that said we won't fight
And I thought to myself boy ain't that right, you'd rather let a soldier die instead
I said it's a shame that every man who died there in that far off land
Was dying so that you won't wake up dead
Course he looked at me like I was crazy, just another warmonger
Well I left that place and went to town and I hit the first bar that I found...
You see I was on orders to Vietnam to a little place just north of Saigon
Had about an hour to catch my plane...
I don't like dying either but man I ain't gonna crawl"

Covers:
Dave Dudley - Vietnam Blues (1966: Mercury Records # 72550)
Autry Inman - Vietnam Blues (1968: Epic Records # BN 26428)

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