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.

@war @political

recorded by Tom Paxton

filename[ LETTRLBJ

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