Lyndon Johnson Told The Nation

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

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

[Verse 2]
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I jumped off the old troop ship
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And sank in mud up to my hips,
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I cussed until the captain called me down.
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"Never mind how hard it's raining,
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Think of all the ground we're gaining,
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Just don't take one step outside of town."

   [Chorus]
     F              C
     Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

[Verse 3]
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Every night the local gentry
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Slip out past the sleeping sentry
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They go to join the old V.C.
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In their nightly little dramas,
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They put on their black pajamas
Continúa después del anuncio
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And come lobbing mortar shells at me.

   [Chorus]
          F              C
     But Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

[Verse 4]
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We go round in helicopters
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Like a bunch of big grasshoppers
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Searching for the Viet Cong in vain.
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They left a note that they had gone,
     Dm
They had to get down to Saigon,
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Their government positions to maintain.

   [Chorus]
          F              C
     And Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

[Verse 5]
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Well, here I sit in this rice paddy
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Wondering about Big Daddy
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And I know that Lyndon loves me so;
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Yet how sadly I remember
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Way back yonder in November,
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When he said I'd never have to go.

   [Chorus]
          F              C
     But Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

[Verse 6]
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The word came from the very top
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That soon the shooting war would stop
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The pockets of resistance were so thin.
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There just remained some trouble spots
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Like Vietnam, Detroit & Watts
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Gene McCarthy and Ho Chi Minh.

   [Chorus]
          F              C
     But Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."

[Verse 7]
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They sent me to some swampy hole,
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We went out on a night patrol,
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Just who was who was very hard to tell,
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With Martha Raye and 13 mayors,
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Half of Congress, 6 ball players,
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And Ronald Reagan yelling, "Give 'em hell!"

   [Chorus]
          F              C
     And Lyndon Johnson told the nation,
      Dm              Am
     "Have no fear of escalation,
                 E7          Am      A7
     I am trying everyone to please.
     F               C
     Though it isn't really war,
           Dm            Am
     We're sending fifty thousand more
                      E7              Am
     To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese."