I looked for this song in the DT and couldn't find it, so here are the lyrics. I use this song in my Modern US History class when I teach kids about Vietnam and escalation, who was fighting who etc. It really helps.

LYNDON JOHNSON TOLD THE NATION

I got a letter from LBJ
It said, "this is your lucky day,
It's time to put you Khaki trouser 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:
And Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
"Have no fear of escalation
I am trying ev'ryone to please.
Though it really isn’t war
We're sending 50,000 more
To help save Viet Nam from the Vietnamese.

I jumped off the old troop ship,
I sank in mud up to my hips,
And cussed until the captain called me down.
"Never mind how hared 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
Slip out past the sleeping sentry
They go out to join the old V.C.
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 back 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.

I know this is in one of the Sing Out compilations of all their songs, but I can't remember right off hand if it is in the pink one or the blue one. It's probably the one with the later editions in it.

KickyC

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 1-Apr-02.