Apparently Tom Paxton messed around with the lyrics to his song also. The following lyrics are attributed to Paxton and printed in the book "Songs of Peace Freedom and Protest" by Tom Glazer (1970. These words are significantly different from the ones in the DT. The DT set of lyrics are the ones that Paxton recorded on his "Ain't that News" album. I have no information on the chronology of the two versions. There may be some clues in the people and events mentioned and the release date of the album, i.e. if events mentioned in this version clearly occurred after the album was recorded then this is the more recent version. If they all could be placed before the album, then perhaps the album version was revised from this one. I think the album version is better written in that it is more general and contains fewer references to potentially dated people and events. Maybe Tom always considered it one of his short shelf life songs that he was constantly changing in concert performances.

rich r

LYNDON JOHNSON TOLD THE NATION - 2

(Tom Paxton, 1965 and 1968 Deep Fork Music)

I got a letter from LBJ
That said, "This is your lucky day,
It's time to put your khaki trousers on.
We've got a job for you to do,
Dean Rusk has caught the Asian flu
And we are sending you to Vietnam

And Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
"Have no fear of escalation,
I am trying every one to please.
Tho' it isn't really war,
We're sending fifty thousand more
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese

The sent me to some swampy hole,
We went out on night patrol,
Just who was who was very hard to tell,
With Martha Raye and thirteen mayors,
Half of Congress, six ball players
And Ronald Reagan yelling, "Give 'em hell!"

It didn't take us very long
To run into the Viet Cong We had our loyal allies to count on
And as the bullets danced around,
I though I heard the thundering sound
Of loyal allies half way to Saigon.

The word came from the very top
That soon the shooting war would stop,
The pockets of resistance were so thin
There just remained some troubled spots,
Like Vietnam, Detroit, and Watts
And Bobby Kennedy and Ho Chi Minh.

So here I sit in this rice paddy
Wondering about Big Daddy
An I know that Lyndon love me so,
I'm one of the chosen men
But somehow I remember when
He told me that I'd never have to go.