Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation Lyrics - Singles - Tom Paxton

I got a letter from L.B.J 

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 Vietnam 

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 the Vietnamese 

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 

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 the Vietnamese 

Every night the local gentry 

Slip out past the sleeping sentry 

They go to join the old V see 

In their nightly little dramas 

They put on their black pajamas 

And come lobbing mortar shells at me 

When 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 the 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 

And 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 the 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 

And 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 the Vietnamese