Long about 1970 or so I was singing in a duo with a friend who could actually sing and play the guitar. We somewhat updated Paxton's classic song and managed to perform if with positive effect a couple times. Nixon was president then and we were making incursions into Cambodia, so we had to make it current. Below is our version of what we affectionately called "The Escalation Lullaby". With apologies to Tom Paxton

ESCALATION LULLABY
(original words and music by Tom Paxton, new words and arrangement by R Roehrdanz & F Schuetze)

Well I got a letter from Tricky Dicky
Said southeast Asia's getting sticky
It's time to don your khaki pants again
Though it may seem very queer
We have no jobs to give you here
So we're sending you from Saigon to Pnom Penh.

CH
Richard Nixon told the nation,
I won't rush deescalation
I am trying every one to please
I'm trying to win this bloody war,
I've just brought home a thousand more
We've helped save Viet Nam from Vietnamese

I jumped off the old troop ship
And sank in mud up to my hip
I cussed until the captain called me down
Never mind how hard it's raining
Think of all the ground we're gaining
Even though it's not in Viet Nam

CH

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

CH

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 heard us coming in the dawn
Then they vanished in the jungle once again.

CH

Now I heard it just the other night
How Nixon says we have to fight
In Operation Total Victory
Our generals jumped and cheered with glee
We've got to keep south Asia free
And Melvin Laird was shouting "Give 'em Hell!" (Hello Richard, it's the old Richard
Who's come back to show us some of his old tricks)

Have no fear said Richard Nixon
No one knows just how I'm fixin'
To end this bloody war in Viet Nam,
I'll tell you if I'm reelected
Of the plan that I've perfected
But meanwhile we shall have to kill and bomb.

Well here I sit in this rice paddy
Wondering about big daddy
And I know that Nixon loves me so.
(Nixon loves me this I know
Spiro Agnew told me so)
Yet how sadly I remember
In that long ago November
When he said I'd never have to go.
(What a friend we have in Nixon
Gosh all golly what a pal, what a pal
I think Richard Nixon has beans in his ears
Beans in his ears, beans in his ears,
I think Richard Nixon has beans in his ears)

Now Richard Nixon tells the nation
What Lyndon Johnson told the nation
Have no fear of escalation
I am trying every one to please
The invasion of another land
Is just defending our command
We've got to help save Viet Nam from Vietnamese.

In case it wasn't obvious, the bridges used the tunes: "Hello Dolly", "Jesus Loves Me", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" and "Beans In My Ears".

rich r