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Lyndon Johnson Told the Nation

Capo 2nd fret


Am   Am7/G   F   Dm   Esus4   E   Am   E


Am
I got a letter from LBJ,
   Dm
It said, "This is your lucky day.
     Am               E              Am   E
It's time to put your khaki trousers on.
Am
Though it may seem very queer,
      Dm
We've got no job to give you here,
   Am             E          Am
So we are sending you to Vietnam."


F              C
Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
 Dm              Am
"Have no fear of escalation.
            E           Am     A7
I am trying everyone to please.
F               C
Though it isn't really war,
      Dm            Am
We're sending fifty thousand more,
                 E              Am   E   Am   E
To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

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

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 Vietnam from Vietnamese."

Every night the local gentry,
Sneak 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.

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 Vietnam from Vietnamese."

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.

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 Vietnam from Vietnamese."

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.

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 Vietnam from Vietnamese."

(Words and music by Tom Paxton, 1965)

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